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Saudi Arabia’s war machine takes on Yemen anew

File photo of a Saudi warplane

At the end of five full days of a so-called truce, Saudi Arabia has reignited its war machine, pounding Yemen with missiles and artillery.

Saudi Arabia resumed its offensives on the impoverished Arab country hours after the end of the ‘ceasefire’, which expired at 11:00 p.m. local time (2000 GMT) on Sunday, with Saudi warplanes pounding a number of civilian and military centers in the Aden, Hajjah, and Sa’ada provinces.

In Aden, warplanes fired five rockets at the districts of Attawahi, Khormaksar, the Political Security Bureau in Fath, as well as the Ras Marmot barracks belonging to the Yemeni naval forces. The Aden airport and the al-Sawlaban military barracks in the city were also hit with three rockets.

Rockets also landed in the Sahar, Zahir and Ghamr districts of Sa’ada Province, while the Saudi artillery targeted Dalih and Ghawr mountains in the northern Yemeni border areas.

The so-called ceasefire took effect nearly seven weeks after Saudi Arabia started its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 - without a UN mandate - in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement. The movement currently controls the capital, Sana’a and major provinces, and to restore power to the fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Riyadh.

Smoke billows following a Saudi airstrike in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, on May 11, 2015 (AFP photo).

 

According to Yemen's Freedom House Foundation, the Saudi airstrikes have claimed the lives of at least 3,979 Yemeni people so far while more than 6,887 others have been wounded.

About 16 million of Yemen’s population of 25 million need assistance and water supplies, and health services are on the verge of collapse, aid organizations have warned.

The resumption of the offensives comes while Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the United Nations special envoy to Yemen, called on Sunday for the extension of the ‘ceasefire’ by another five days.

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the United Nations special envoy to Yemen (AFP photo)

 

“We call for the cessation of violence and the unblocked entry of humanitarian assistance in Yemen,” the Mauritanian diplomat told a conference on Yemen that started in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Sunday. Rival Yemeni political figures and anti-Ansarullah tribes are participating in the meeting. Yemen’s army and the Ansarullah movement have stayed away from the gathering, saying that they will not attend any talks sponsored by Riyadh.

Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, has also asserted that dialogue on Yemen should be mediated by an international organization and held in a “neutral country.”

HN/HSN/HMV


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