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UAE Launches Fresh Attacks

In Sanaa, residents said the Houthi-controlled Defence Ministry building and the command of the special security forces were among the targets hit in further strikes by Saudi-led forces.

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Bombs hit troops loyal to Houthi ally and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and a Houthi base in a Muslim Brotherhood religious school in northern Sanaa.

Those killed in Friday’s attack included 10 Saudi soldiers, 45 troops from the United Arab Emirates and five from Bahrain, Asiri said earlier. The Houthis, meanwhile, say they’ve suffered discrimination from successive Yemeni governments.

The Huthis said Friday’s missile attack was “revenge” for the six months of deadly air raids, but the coalition vowed there would be no let-up in its air war.

The Saudi-led coalition wants to reinstall the exiled Hadi and push back Houthi militiamen, who Arab Gulf states view as being backed by regional rival Iran.

“We will press ahead until we purge Yemen of the scum”.

The streets remained deserted as the bombing lasted into daylight.

But after the Houthis seized the Yemeni capital past year , Hadi fled to the southern city of Aden, his main power base, and then into exile in Saudi Arabia.

In the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, an honour guard stood by as pallbearers carried the coffins of the dead soldiers off a military aircraft at Al-Bateen airport.

“The sons of the UAE continue to show resilience and bravery in support of our Yemeni brothers against injustice and aggression”, crown prince and deputy commander of UAE armed forces Skheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan said.

The UAE declared a three-day period of mourning for the soldiers.

The coalition has been supporting the anti-Houthi fighters with air strikes, military training and deliveries of tanks and heavy artillery.

Raids also struck positions in Marib, as well as the neighboring northeastern province of Jawf, military sources said.

Al Jazeera’s English website said 1,000 Qatari soldiers, backed by 200 armored vehicles and 30 Apache helicopters had been deployed.

“They are as of now not deployed in Yemen but in Saudi Arabia to protect the border“, he added.

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The Saudis are also supplying weapons and providing military advice in the fight for control of their southern neighbor. On Friday, Bahrain’s state news agency also reported that five of its soldiers were killed in Yemen operations, although it did not specify where or how.

Smoke rises during an air strike on an army weapons depot on a mountain overlooking Yemen