A Saudi-led military coalition has been battling the rebels and their allies since March 2015 in support of Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
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Houthi rebels said that Saudi warplanes launched over 50 sorties Wednesday targeting the Nehem district, northeast of the capital city of Sanaa.
Clashes also flared between coalition forces and the insurgents close to the Saudi border, Fierce fighting was also reported between government forces and Houthi rebels in Haradh, which borders the southern Saudi province of Jazan.
Backed by Saudi-led airstrikes, pro-Hadi forces have since managed to reclaim large swathes of the country’s south – including provisional capital Aden – but have failed to retake Sanaa and other strategic areas.
Brigadier General Ahmed Asiri, the military spokesman of the coalition, told Al Jazeera from Riyadh on Wednesday that it was important to “correct information” reported on Tuesday that claimed the alliance hit a factory in Sanaa city, killing 14 people.
While the secretive Saudi government has not formally disclosed its battles losses from its 16-month involvement with its neighbor’s civil war, videos posted on YouTube purport to show rebels blowing up Abrams tanks with Iranian-made rockets.
Officials said that the USA military on Thursday killed three Al-Qaeda operatives in a strike in Shabwa. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
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.
“Children are paying the heaviest price of the conflict in Yemen”, the agency said in a statement. “The actual numbers are likely to be much higher”, the agency said.
UNICEF was referring to reports of killings of nine civilians on Saturday.
The raids come less than 72 hours after UN-brokered peace talks were suspended following the appointment by the Shiite rebels and their allies of a council to run Yemen.
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Ban had previously gotten in some trouble with the Saudis for noting the large number of civilians, particularly children, that they killed, which forced them to agree to abandon language in an annual report on war crimes against children which mentioned the Saudi war.
