(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Air raids, naval shelling and ground fighting shook Yemen yesterday in some of the most widespread combat since a Saudi-led alliance intervened last month against Iranian-allied Houthi militia who have seized large tracts of the country.
There were at least five air strikes on military positions and an area near the presidential palace compound in the Houthi-held capital Sana'a at dawn yesterday, while warships pounded an area near the port of the southern city of Aden, residents said.
"The explosions were so big they shook the house, waking us and our kids up. Life has really become unbearable in this city," a Sana'a resident who gave his name as Jamal told Reuters.
The strikes on Sana'a were the first since the Saudi-led coalition said last week it was scaling back a campaign against the Houthis. But the air raids soon resumed as the Houthis' nationwide gains had not been notably rolled back, and there has been no visible progress toward peace talks.
Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, feels menaced by the Shia Houthi advance across Yemen since last September, when the rebels captured the capital.
The Houthis later forced President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi into exile. The Saudi-led intervention aims to restore Hadi and prevent Yemen disintegrating as a state, with Al Qaeda militants thriving in the chaos and one of the world's busiest oil shipping lanes off the Yemeni coast at risk.
Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited King Fahd airbase in Saudi Arabia's Taif yesterday and reaffirmed his country's commitment to the Saudi-led coalition.
"Our only choice is victory in the test of Yemen," the official WAM news agency quoted him as saying.
Fighters loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh have been battling alongside the Houthi rebels. In London, Yemeni Foreign Minister Riyadh Yaseen rejected a call for peace talks issued by Saleh on Friday and said the Saudi-led military operation had not ended.
"These calls are unacceptable after all of the destruction Ali Abdullah Saleh has caused," Yaseen said.
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