Saudi Arabia renewed its aerial assault on Shiite rebels in Yemen and vowed to keep using force when needed, even as it backed the resumption of peace talks.
Fighter aircraft from the Saudi-led coalition attacked Houthi rebel militia and troops allied with former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh north of Aden, a southern port city, the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television channel reported yesterday.
In Ibb in central Yemen, residents reported an intense series of strikes early yesterday on Houthi positions and weapon warehouses in the region.
Photo: AFP
They said targets included a military base in the town of al-Kafr, unspecified sites in Hubaysh, as well as a college on the outskirts of Ibb and another in the city of Yarim.
In Aden late on Wednesday, five Houthi militiamen were killed at a checkpoint while fighting against local forces opposed to them.
In the province of Dalea, eight Houthi fighters died, also at a checkpoint late on Wednesday. Heavy clashes were continuing in the area, residents said.
Saudi Ambassador to the US Adel al-Jubeir said the coalition may continue strikes and still does not rule out sending ground troops, though he also said the kingdom hopes that its operation has paved the way for political negotiations.
The Saudis and their mostly Sunni Muslim allies announced an end to Operation Decisive Storm on Tuesday, saying it succeeded in destroying heavy weaponry and missiles held by the rebels. Saudi Arabia says Iran is behind the rise of the Houthis, a claim viewed with skepticism by many Western diplomats.
“The decision to calm matters now entirely rests with them,” al-Jubeir said of the rebels.
He said Saudi Arabia is providing support to militias fighting the Houthis, without giving details.
The Saudi-led bombing marked an escalation of the civil war in Yemen, a country located among major oilfields and adjacent to key shipping routes. Al-Qaeda has already benefited from a power vacuum in the country to establish a base there.
The Saudis and their allies are in discussions with the UN about how to revive talks on a political settlement, with the Saudis preferring to host the negotiations, according to a UN official who asked not to be identified, citing the sensitivity of the matter.
If the UN, which brokered previous rounds of talks before the Saudi-led intervention, continues to take the lead when talks resume, then it would choose to hold negotiations outside the Middle East, said a UN Security Council diplomat who also asked not to be identified.
Aid agencies have warned of deteriorating humanitarian conditions. The Yemeni Ministry of Health reported that major hospitals and facilities would soon be “completely unable to provide humanitarian and emergency services or to perform operations,” according to a WHO spokesman in comments carried on the UN Web site on Tuesday.
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