THE anti-rebel forces took the town of Sirwah – the last outpost of the rebels known as Houthis in Marib province, and they are now securing their gains there, according to Colonel Ayed al-Moradi, a Yemeni military official.
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On September 28 coalition planes bombed wedding tents in the southwestern Yemeni village of Wahijah, near the port of Mocha (Mokha) on the Red Sea coast, killing dozens of people, including eight children. “Warplanes were heard in the area ahead of the attack”.
But the coalition, under mounting criticism over the civilian death toll of its bombing campaign against the Houthi militias who it accuses of having Iranian backing, has denied any involvement in either attack.
Sanabani and other residents said the cause of the blast was an air strike.
Human rights organization Amnesty global released a report this week-entitled “Bombs fall from the sky day and night”: Civilians under fire in northern Yemen-and called for a suspension of transfers of arms implicated in war crimes to the coalition.
The nine-member, Saudi-led coalition intervened in support of Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after Iran-backed Huthi rebels overran the capital Sanaa previous year.
The United Nations has welcomed a pledge by Yemen’s Houthis Thursday to accept the terms of a ceasefire deal brokered by the worldwide body, calling it “an important step” towards a peace settlement in the country’s ongoing war.
Local people told Reuters jets from a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen was probably to blame, but the coalition’s spokesman said it had carried out no air strikes in that part of the country.
A few 6,400 people have reportedly lost their lives in the Saudi attacks, and a total of almost 14,000 people have been injured since March.
Local medics said at least 13 people were killed, including the brothers, and 38 others wounded. The general command of the UAE’s armed forces said the dead included four Emirati soldiers, though the Saudi Press Agency said three Emiratis and one Saudi died.
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Both groups said on Wednesday that they had officially notified United Nations chief that they were ready to join talks on a settlement based on a seven-point peace plan proposed by the U.N.in talks in last month.
