More than a dozen dead in coalition strikes on Yemen’s Sanaa following attack in UAE

 

Sanaa, JAN 18: An airstrike killed about 14 people in a building in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, residents said on Tuesday, during strikes across the city launched by the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi group.

The alliance strikes on Houthi-held Sanaa followed an attack claimed by the Iran-aligned Houthis on Monday on coalition partner the United Arab Emirates, in Abu Dhabi, in which three people, including one Pakistani, were killed.

The coalition also said it intercepted eight drones launched toward Saudi Arabia on Monday.

Early on Tuesday, the coalition said it had begun air strikes against strongholds and camps in Sanaa belonging to the Houthi group, Saudi state media said.

The strikes appeared to be the deadliest since 2019 on Sanaa.

The strike that killed about 14 people, according to initial estimates, was on the home of a former military official.

It killed him, his wife, his 25-year-old son, other family members and some unidentified people, a medical source and residents told Reuters.

According to a report by Al Arabiya, the strike killed Houthi leader Major General Abdullah Qassem al-Junaid.

The strikes were launched “in response to threat and military necessity”, a spokesperson for the coalition said.

Coalition strikes around the city had killed a total of about 20 people, the deputy foreign minister for the Houthi administration, which holds much of northern Yemen, said on Twitter.

Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said strikes had damaged houses, killed at least a dozen people and wounded about a dozen.

The UAE has armed and trained Yemeni forces that recently joined fighting against the Houthis in Yemen’s energy-producing regions of Shabwa and Marib.

Monday’s Houthi-claimed attack on two sites in the UAE set off explosions in fuel trucks, killed three people and ignited a blaze near Abu Dhabi airport.

In response, the UAE said it reserved the right to respond to “terrorist attacks and criminal escalation”.

Pakistan condemns terrorist attack

Pakistan has condemned the attack on UAE, saying that such attacks “violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the UAE and pose a grave threat to the regional peace and security”.

In a statement issued on Monday, the Foreign Office called for an immediate end to attacks. It also offered condolences to the families of the victims.

It emphasised that Pakistan stood in solidarity with the UAE in the “face of this wanton act of terrorism”.

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Courtesy Dawn News

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