Airstrikes target Yemen's rebels as fighting rages in east

Coalition aircraft fired at least 20 missiles at Houthi positions in their northern heartland of Saada and bombed Aden University which was believed to have been used as a Houthi hideout.

Militiamen loyal to Yemen’s fugitive president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi unload shells in the port city of Aden yesterday. Saleh Al Obeidi / AFP

SANAA // Fighter aircraft from the Saudi-led coalition bombed Houthi rebels in their north Yemen stronghold on Thursday as fighting raged in an oil-rich eastern province, security officials and tribesmen said.

The Houthis and allied military units loyal to the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, are battling forces loyal to internationally-recognised president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi, who fled to Saudi Arabia in March.

Coalition aircraft fired at least 20 missiles at Houthi positions in their northern heartland of Saada and bombed Aden University in the southern port city, officials said.

The university is believed to have been used as a Houthi hideout.

Fierce clashes between pro-

government tribal fighters and Houthis were also under way in the eastern province of Marib, home to much of Yemen’s oil industry.

Meanwhile along the Saudi-Yemen frontier, two Saudi border guards were killed and five others wounded by shellfire, official media reported.

The deaths occurred when “military missiles from Yemen” struck their position at Zahran South in the Asir border region on Wednesday, Riyadh’s interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

This raises the death toll to at least 30 people killed in the Saudi border area since a Riyadh-led coalition began airstrikes against the Houthi rebels.

The air campaign has led to deadly skirmishes between the rebels and Saudi forces along the border, but many of the recent Saudi casualties have been civilians killed by cross-border barrages.

While the airstrikes have devastated rebel positions, ammunition depots and bases, they have not been able to pave the way for the recapture of the strategic southern city of Aden, which Mr Hadi declared the country’s temporarily capital before fleeing to Saudi.

International aid groups said Yemen’s conflict had killed up to 2,000 people and wounded 8,000.

London-based Amnesty International said on Thursday that residents in the rebel-held capital of Sanaa were “caught in a deadly crossfire between the pro-government coalition airstrikes and anti-aircraft fire from the Houthi armed group”.

“All parties to the conflict can and should take all feasible steps to minimise the risk to civilians,” said Amnesty’s senior crisis adviser, Lama Fakih.

* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse