Local Editor
Dozens of air strikes hit the Yemeni capital Sana’a on Thursday, in what residents described as the heaviest aerial attacks yet in nine months of war; days after a Saudi-led coalition trying to restore a Saudi-backed government ended a fragile ceasefire.
"Everybody was screaming and the administration got us together and called our parents to take us out. All the students were in a panic." There were no immediate reports of casualties.
A coalition led by Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Muslim allies which supports Yemen’s former fugitive President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has been bombing the country in a bid to restore power to the Hadi government.
Almost 6,000 people have died in the conflict, nearly half of them civilians. United Nations-backed peace talks have yet to produce any substantial progress.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s pro-Hadi foreign ministry declared the representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights persona non grata after what it said were unfair statements, a news agency run by the Hadi government, sabanew.net, reported.
"The work of the (U.N.) commission was a huge disappointment as it issued statements in line with the language of the rebels," the agency said, citing the human rights minister who also accused the body of overlooking "systematic violations" by the Houthis.
In Geneva, the U.N. human rights office said the move was "very regrettable".
"We believe our office in Yemen has been doing an excellent job in very difficult conditions," said U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville, adding that U.N. officials would study the accusations made against the representative.
A new front opened in the civil war when forces loyal to Hadi landed by sea at the Red Sea port of Maydee in northern Yemen near the border with Saudi Arabia late on Wednesday, residents said. Northern Yemen is a Houthi stronghold.
Hadi’s forces attempted to push out from Maydee’s port, pounded for weeks by air strikes and naval shelling, into the surrounding city, but ran into heavy Houthi resistance and landmines, residents reported.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
