Local Editor
Yemen's main airport was briefly reopened on Thursday to receive more than 100 Houthi prisoners of war released by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as efforts to end the five-year conflict gain momentum.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which supervised the arrival, said in a statement on Thursday that 128 of 200 freed Houthis arrived at the capital's Sanaa International Airport, which was closed on August 9, 2016, by the Saudi-UAE-led military coalition.
The transfer of Houthi prisoners is being seen as a sign that the Saudi-UAE-led coalition and the rebels were advancing a United Nations-brokered deal aimed at ending the war in the Arab world's poorest country.
In September, the Houthis freed scores of captives who had been held since the rebels seized Sanaa, along with much of northern Yemen, in 2014.
The ICRC said it hoped these releases would "create positive momentum to return more detainees to their families".
"This release is excellent news for the freed detainees and their families in Yemen with whom they will be reunited," said Kedir Awol Omar, the ICRC's head of mission in Saudi Arabia.
"We hope that the release of these 128 detainees but also the 290 detainees set free by Ansarullah on 30 September will create a positive dynamic."
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
