10 dead as intense coalition raids hit Yemen capital

Saudi-led warplanes pounded rebel positions in the Yemeni capital on Tuesday leaving at least 10 people dead, medics said, as powerful explosions shook Sanaa.

Witnesses and an AFP correspondent said targets included the police academy and the headquarters of the security services, both in the heart of the city which Shiite Huthi rebels have controlled since September last year.

Overnight strikes also targeted the Sanaa residences of <g data-gr-id="25">Huthi</g> leaders, witnesses said. Medical sources said that at least seven “civilians” and three guards of a leading Huthi member were killed in the strikes.

The rebel-controlled sabanews.net website reported that 15 people were killed and 77 wounded in Tuesday’s raids.

The latest strikes come a day after the government announced that 10,000 Yemeni fighters are now ready as part of the “national army being prepared to liberate Sanaa and other provinces”.

Gulf Arab members of the Saudi-led anti-rebel coalition have also reportedly sent thousands of heavily armed reinforcements to Yemen after a Huthi missile attack killed 60 coalition soldiers on Friday.

The additional troops, mostly from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, were deployed to the battleground eastern oil province of Marib where the attack took place, the reports said.

In March, the coalition launched its air war against the rebels when President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled to neighbouring Saudi Arabia after they entered his last refuge, Yemen’s second 

city Aden.

After his loyalists recaptured the southern port in July, the coalition launched a ground operation which has seen the rebels pushed back from five southern provinces, although they still control Sanaa and much of the north and centre. 

A Qatari official confirmed today that the tiny Gulf state had dispatched 1,000 troops for Yemen, “ready to fight” as part of the Arab coalition against Iran-backed Shiite rebels. The Qatari forces have not yet entered the country but were positioned at Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia, the source told AFP. It was the first confirmation by an official in Doha of a report this week by Qatar’s Al-Jazeera news channel that the country had sent troops to Yemen. “We have sent troops who will be deployed along with Saudi troops,” the official said. “They are at the Saudi/Yemen border, they have not entered Yemen. They should be entering Yemen in the next few days.” The source added that the Qatari soldiers, armed with heavy ground weapons, were “ready to fight”.