Coalition raids on rebels in Yemen capital kill 43

The coalition campaign of air strikes against Iran-backed Shiite <g data-gr-id="43">Huthi</g> rebels and allied forces loyal to former leader Ali Abdullah Saleh began on March 26 in an effort to restore UN-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to power. On Wednesday, warplanes launched a raid on the command headquarters of special forces loyal to Saleh in southern Sanaa, as well as on an arms depot in the <g data-gr-id="44">Fajj</g> <g data-gr-id="45">Attan</g> neighbourhood overlooking the city, residents said.

An official from the rebel-held health ministry told AFP that “43 soldiers and officers were killed” and many others were wounded in the raids, raising an earlier toll of 36 dead.

Other air raids today badly damaged a rebel-controlled naval base in the province of Hodeida on the Red Sea coast, residents said.

Strikes also hit the northern rebel stronghold province of <g data-gr-id="40">Hajja</g> near the border with Saudi Arabia, witnesses said, reporting casualties in seven raids on arms depots at Abs military base.

In the southern province of <g data-gr-id="41">Daleh</g>, the coalition launched an early morning attack on a rebel-held military camp north of the provincial capital.

Anti-rebel militiamen have been trying to retake the camp, and clashes there have killed more than 60 fighters on both sides over the past 48 hours, a local government official said.

Pro-Hadi forces said yesterday they had regained control of the provincial capital itself, also named <g data-gr-id="30">Daleh</g>.

The coalition also raided other rebel positions in the central city of <g data-gr-id="37">Dhammar</g> and in <g data-gr-id="38">Taez</g> province, as well as in oil-rich <g data-gr-id="39">Marib</g> in the east, residents said.

The United Nations is trying to reschedule peace talks for Yemen that had originally been due to begin in Geneva on Thursday.

It says almost 2,000 people have been killed and more than half a million displaced in the conflict since the fighting escalated in March with the air campaign.

World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan said today that the toll includes “hundreds of women and children”, adding that “almost 7.5 million people are in urgent need of medical help”.