Saudi air strikes target aid convoy in Yemen, kill 3

Over two dozen people have reportedly been killed and several others wounded in a fresh wave of Saudi aerial attacks in Yemen, which also targeted a humanitarian aid convoy in the country’s southwest.

Witnesses said the Saudi fighter jets on Sunday fired several missiles on two aid trucks that were heading toward the southeastern city of Taiz to distribute humanitarian supplies among crisis-stricken people, Yemen’s al-Masirah satellite TV network reported. 

Three people lost their lives and nine others wounded in the attack, according to the report.

Separately, more than 24 people were killed after Saudi warplanes bombarded a base run by Ansarullah fighters in a region situated between the southern Yemeni provinces of Abyan and al-Bayda, late on Saturday, according to a report published by Yemen-based Arabic-language Wattan news agency.

The report added that 21 Ansarullah revolutionaries as well as three civilians lost their lives in the airborne raid. The extent of the material damage caused by the strike was not immediately available.

Saudi warplanes also struck another region situated between al-Bayda and Shabwa provinces. There were no immediate reports on possible casualties.

In another development, 20 Ansarullah fighters were killed when militants loyal to Yemen’s fugitive president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi launched a surprise attack on them in the town of Ad Dali’, situated over 280 kilometers (183 miles) south of Sana’a.

Four other Ansarullah members were killed in another ambush by pro-Hadi militants in the southern city of Lahij.  

Despite the Saudi air strikes, the Houthi movement has made fresh gains in Yemen, capturing the provincial government headquarters in the southern city of Aden.

The Houthi fighters also made headway to areas near the port of Mualla.

Saudi Arabia’s air campaign against Yemen started on March 26 without a UN mandate in a bid to restore power to Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

However, the Ansarullah revolutionaries later said Hadi lost his legitimacy as president of Yemen after he fled Sana’a to the port city of Aden in the south.

On March 25, the embattled president fled Aden, where he had sought to set up a rival power base, to Riyadh after Ansarullah revolutionaries advanced on the port.

The Ansarullah fighters took control of Sana’a in September 2014 and are currently moving southward. The revolutionaries said the Hadi government was incapable of properly running the affairs of the country and containing the growing wave of corruption and terror.

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