Local Editor
The Saudi-led military coalition conducted air strikes on the Yemeni capital Sana’a on Tuesday for the first time in five months, residents said, after U.N.-backed peace talks to end the conflict broke down over the weekend.
Medics said nine civilians were killed in a strike on a potato chip factory in the Nahda district of the capital.
The Saudi-led coalition is backing Yemeni forces loyal to the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who are trying to reinstate the Hadi.
The coalition also forced the suspension of flights into Sana’a International Airport for 72 hours from late on Monday, an airport official and aid agency sources said.
A spokesman for the coalition did not immediately respond to media request for comment on the air strikes or the closure of the airport.
The air strikes hit a presidential compound and military base in Sana’a as well as a Republican Guard base in the Arhab area near the airport, residents said. Pro-Hadi forces are trying to advance into the city from the north and east.
On Sunday night the Saudi-led coalition killed nine civilians in an air strike outside Sana’a.
In a separate development, residents in Azzan in Yemen’s southern Shabwa province said Al Qaeda militants had dismantled their checkpoints and had withdrawn from the city on Tuesday following air strikes - apparently by the Saudi-led coalition forces - targeting their positions there.
The militants took advantage of the country’s wartime chaos to seize control of much of southern Yemen, but have suffered military setbacks inflicted by coalition-backed local forces.
Saudi Arabia began its deadly campaign against Yemen in late March 2015. The strikes were meant to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
About 10,000 people have been killed and over 16,000 injured since Riyadh launched the airstrikes. The Saudi aggression has also taken a heavy toll on Yemen’s facilities and infrastructure.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
