A Houthi spokesman said Tuesday that Saudi-led strikes also hit the rebel stronghold provinces of Saada, Hajja and Ibb, in north and central Yemen.
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In early April, Saudi aircraft attacked a crowded marketplace in Mastaba, a village in Yemen’s northern Hajja governorate, some 45km from the Saudi border.
The kingdom also wants 20 M88A1/A2 conversion kits for Heavy Equipment Recovery Combat Utility Lift Evacuation System (HERCULES) Armored Recovery Vehicle (ARV), used to extract battle-damaged tanks.
“This sale will increase the Royal Saudi Land Force’s (RSLF) interoperability with USA forces and conveys United States commitment to Saudi Arabia’s security and armed forces modernization”, DSCA said in the notice.
Even though the formal announcement of the sales does not say where the tanks were fighting, the Saudi military is believed to have lost some of its 400-plus Abrams tanks in Yemen, where it is fighting Iranian-backed Houthi separatists.
Congress has 30 days to block the sale, although that does not happen often.
“More than 20 workers were killed, not counting those that are still unaccounted for (because of) Al Saud (the Saudi ruling family), the Jews”, said Ali Mohammed, a factory worker.
The Al-Aqel factory, which makes potato chips and is near a military equipment maintenance centre targeted in the raids, was struck during working hours, he added.
Since the Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against the Houthis, the war has claimed 9,000 lives, displaced about 2.4 million people and pushed the Arab world’s already impoverished country to the verge of starvation.
Houthi rebels said that Saudi warplanes launched over 50 sorties on Wednesday targeting the Nehem district, northeast of the capital city of Sanaa.
The increased violence comes after UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait between representatives of the government and Huthi insurgents ended without a breakthrough.
On Tuesday, the UN’s children fund, UNICEF, said the Saudi invasion had killed 1,121 children and wounded 1,650 others.
Saudi Arabia and an alliance of mostly Gulf Arab allies have launched thousands of air strikes against the Houthis and their allies in Yemen’s army since they intervened in Yemen’s civil war on behalf of the exiled government.
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Another pro-government source, who spoke anonymously due to restrictions on talking to media, said eight Houthi fighters had been killed late Wednesday in fierce clashes with pro-Hadi forces in Yemen’s southwestern Taiz province.
