Middle East
14:19, 27-May-2019
Houthi leader says drone attacks a response to spurned Yemen peace moves
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A leader of Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement said on Sunday it had resumed drone strikes deep inside Saudi Arabia this month in response to what he called the Saudi-led coalition's spurning of "peace initiatives" by his group.
Mohammed Ali al-Houthi dismissed Saudi accusations that the attacks had been carried out on the orders on Iran - at a time of growing tension between Tehran and Riyadh alongside its Western and regional allies.
Saudi Arabia, leading a Western-backed Sunni Muslim coalition, intervened in neighboring Yemen in 2015 after the Houthis ousted the government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi from power in the capital Sanaa.
The Houthis have stepped up attacks on the kingdom in the past two weeks - including a drone strike on two oil pumping stations near Riyadh - in a resurgence of tactics that had largely subsided since late last year amid UN-led peace efforts.
Saudi state media reported that the kingdom had on Sunday intercepted another missile armed with explosives that it said had been fired by the Houthis towards the southern airport of Jizan.
The coalition has responded to the renewed drone attacks with air strikes on Houthi military sites in Sanaa.
The Houthis, who still hold the main urban centers, say their revolution is against corruption and have long rejected reports that they are acting as Iran's proxy against Saudi Arabia.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed the most impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation to the brink of famine.
(Cover: A child stands on the rubble of houses a day after they were hit by airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition that left six people killed and more than 40 others injured including children and women on May 17, 2019, in Sanaa. /VCG Photo)
Source(s): Reuters