Saudi airstrikes hit military targets in Yemeni capital

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Following Yemen's Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile at the main airport in Riyadh, Saudi-led coalition warplanes waged a series of airstrikes on military targets in the Yemeni capital Sanaa overnight and early Sunday morning.

The warplanes hit several military targets inside Sanaa, including the platform of al-Sabeen square, the nearby presidential palace, the national security headquarters, the interior ministry and the air-defense bases in the capital's mountains of Attan and Noqom, according to residents and Houthi-run Saba news agency.

Saba reported over 15 airstrikes on the targets inside Sanaa and an approximate number of airstrikes on military targets on the outskirts of the city.

These targets have been hit by the coalition fighter jets hundreds of times since the beginning of the war two and a half years ago.

People look at a van damaged by an air strike on a parade square in Sanaa, Yemen, on November 5, 2017. /Reuters Photo

Residential properties near to the targeted places in Sanaa were slightly damaged. There were no reported casualties from the airstrikes overnight and early Sunday morning.

Coalition warplanes flew over the Yemeni capital for hours following the rebels' ballistic missile attack, which hit north of King Khalid International Airport.

On Saturday night, the Shiite Houthi rebels, backed by rocketry forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, fired the long-range ballistic missile towards Riyadh at around 20:20 pm local time (1700 GMT).

Residents of Riyadh reported hearing loud bang near King Khalid International Airport.

The missile fell and exploded north of the airport but caused no casualties, according to Saudi Arabia's local Al Arabiya satellite TV channel, adding that air traffic was not disturbed.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said on his Twitter account that the missile came in retaliation to a Saudi air attack last Wednesday on a hotel and popular marketplace in the Yemeni northern province of Saada, killing 29 civilians and injuring dozens of others, although the coalition said the hotel and the marketplace were military targets because Houthi fighters were gathering there.

Houthi fighters stand guard at the site of an air strike on a parade square in Sanaa, Yemen, on November 5, 2017. /Reuters Photo

Saturday's missile attack was the latest in a series of ballistic missile attacks by Houthis from Yemen towards Saudi cities since the country intervened in the Yemeni war more than two years ago.

The Houthi rebels last week fired another ballistic missile towards a Saudi military base in the Saudi border province of Najran and Saudi authorities said the missile hit a residential complex in Beir Salaries area.

Saudi Arabia led a military coalition of 10 countries and intervened in Yemen's civil war in March 2015 to back the internationally recognized government of exiled President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi against Iranian-allied Shiite Houthis who stormed the capital Sanaa and controlled much of the country's north.

Despite thousands of Saudi-led airstrikes against Houthis, the coalition has yet to defeat the Yemeni rebels.

The war has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and displaced more than 3 million others, according to UN agencies.

The war has led Yemen to become one of the world's largest humanitarian crises, with just under one million Yemenis hit by a deadly cholera outbreak and the country at large placed on the brink of famine.

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Source(s): Xinhua News Agency