Houthis: Saudi-led Coalition Strikes Targets Near Yemen’s Capital

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen bombed Houthi military targets around the capital city of Sanaa on Thursday, the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported. The Sunni coalition has yet to confirm the strikes, though it vowed on Wednesday to respond to a cruise missile attack on an airport in southern Saudi Arabia that wounded 26 people. That attack was the second assault on a Saudi airport by the Iran-backed Shi’ite rebels this week, with multiple drone strikes claimed against an airport in Jizan on June 9. The latest hostilities coincide with the ongoing civil war in Yemen, which is seen mainly as a proxy war between Riyadh and Tehran. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have intervened in Yemen since 2015, after the Houthis overthrew President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and dislodged his government from Sanaa. A U.N. mission monitoring the first phase of a peace deal reached between the two sides in December said on Wednesday it had not detected any Houthi forces in Hodeidah’s three key ports since the group withdrew a month ago. Coalition forces are set to withdraw only once the warring parties settle on terms for the second phase of the peace deal.