Saudi-led coalition launches airstrikes on Yemen's capital after Houthi missile attack

Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-05 06:05:33|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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SANAA, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Saudi-led coalition warplanes hit military camps inside Yemen's capital Sanaa five times on Wednesday night, local residents said.

The airstrikes came a few hours after Houthi rebels said they fired a ballistic missile toward Saudi Aramco storage tanks.

The residents in the capital reported five airstrikes hitting military camps in Attan mountain in the southwestern part of Sanaa.

The explosions echoed across the densely populated city, which is under the control of the Iranian-allied Shiite Houthi rebels.

No casualties among residents were reported yet.

The airstrikes targeting Sanna on Wednesday night came amid military escalation on the ground from all rival warring forces in Yemen, after more than a month of relative calm in the capital city.

Earlier in the day, the Houthi group said its fighters fired a ballistic missile toward storage tanks of Saudi oil giant Aramco in the southwestern province of Jizan, according to a statement by Houthi-controlled state Saba news agency.

However, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV reported that the missile was intercepted and destroyed.

A day earlier, Saudi Arabia said one of its oil tankers was targeted in the Red Sea international waters off the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah, which is under control of Houthis.

The Houthi group has yet to claim responsibility, but some of its activists said Tuesday's attack on the Saudi tanker in the Red Sea was done by a land-to-sea missile in retaliation for the coalition's recent airstrikes on Hodeidah.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia led a military coalition of Arab forces, backed by the United States, to intervene in Yemen's conflict to back the government of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The coalition has launched thousands of airstrikes on the Iran-aligned Shiite Houthis, in attempts to roll back rebel gains and reinstate President Hadi in the capital Sanaa.

In return, Houthis have fired hundreds of ballistic missiles toward Saudi cities, with most of them intercepted by Saudi air defense forces.

The war has so far killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and pushed the Arab country to the brink of mass famine.

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