‘Heaviest’ Arab raids rock Yemen capital

SANAA, Yemen – Explosions lit up the sky above the Yemeni capital as Arab coalition warplanes pounded rebel positions in the heaviest raids yet of the 6-day-old Saudi-led operation, witnesses said Tuesday, March 31.

Huge blasts were heard overnight in Sanaa when coalition forces hit a missile depot belonging to the renegade Republican Guard, which is loyal to former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh.

“Sanaa lived through a day of terror due to the continuous bombing from early Monday (March 30) until this morning,” said Assem al-Sabri, a 28-year-old resident.

“We couldn’t sleep from the sounds of explosions,” he told Agence France-Presse.

The missile depot blast rocked a southwestern district of Sanaa and flames billowing from the site were seen by residents across most of the city.

“The bombing was the heaviest I have ever heard in my life. The explosions lit up the skies of Sanaa,” said another resident, 30-year-old Amr al-Amrani.

Early Tuesday, air strikes targeted two camps held by Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels and allied Republican Guard soldiers in the southern town of Daleh.

Columns of smoke rose from the area, witnesses said.

Coalition warplanes also raided an air base belonging to a Republican Guard brigade in the southwestern city of Taez, witnesses there said.

For the first time since the coalition operation began, warplanes also bombed renegade troops in the Shiite-populated city of Dhammar, a stronghold of the Huthi rebels south of Sanaa. 

They also hit another arms depot north of the capital, according to witnesses.

An air strike killed dozens of people at a camp for displaced people in northwest Yemen on Monday, with the two sides trading blame over the incident.

The Saudi-led coalition has vowed to keep up the raids until the rebels abandon their insurrection against President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Riyadh. – Rappler.com