Smoke rises from a food factory after a Saudi airstrike hit it in Sana’a, Yemen, August 9, 2016.
Advertisement
In a Wednesday statement, Ahmed Asiri, a spokesman for a Saudi-led Arab coalition, accused Yemen’s Houthi militia of “resorting to targeting civilians [in Saudi Arabia] after failing to strike military targets”.
Saudi Arabia, which is leading a coalition fighting rebel groups in neighboring Yemen, requested up to 153 M1Al/A2 Tank structures for conversion to 133 M1A2S Saudi Abrams configured Main Battle Tanks and 20 battle damage replacements for the existing fleet, the agency said.
The increased violence comes after UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait between representatives of the government and Huthi insurgents ended without a breakthrough.
But the United Nations has said the vast majority of civilian deaths have been caused by airstrikes from the coalition, which is supported by the US. Yemen has been under military strikes by Saudi Arabia since late March 2015, aimed at restoring fugitive president, Mansur Hadi who is a close ally of Riyadh and the West, to power.
State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said she was “very concerned” by Tuesday’s casualty reports, but did not directly comment when asked if the State Department anxious USA weapons being sent to Saudi Arabia could be used against civilians. Air strikes also temporarily closed Sanaa’s worldwide airport.
Iran, which backs the Houthi rebels, called on Saudi Arabia to end coalition air raids.
“We are not striking Sanaa, we are providing air support for the loyal army to the government in Nehm [district of Sanaa province] and we strike the positions of the forces belonging to the [former President] Ali Abdullah Saleh and to the militias outer ring of the capital Sanaa”, Asiri said.
Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted missiles fired from Yemeni territory towards two of its southern towns on Wednesday morning.
The Saudi-led coalition also bombed two Houthi rebel military quarters in the same neighbourhood.
Additional attacks were reported Sunday night in eastern Sanaa, in which UNICEF, the United Nations children’s organization, confirmed reports of at least four fatalities, though it did not say who was behind the attack.
At least 15 workers of a food factory including six women, were killed and eight wounded in a series of Saudi-led airstrikes in Sanaa on Tuesday.
Advertisement
Coalition airstrikes and fighting on the ground have since left more than 6,400 people dead, the majority of which were civilians.
