Saudi-led strikes hit Houthis near Aden palace

The Saudi-led coalition launched Sunday airstrikes on Houthi sites near the Ma'ashiq presidential palace in Aden, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.

The coalition also conducted an air strike that hit a base in central Yemen killing 15 rebels, medical and security sources said, according to Agence France-Presse.

The pre-dawn strike hit Camp 22 in Al-Dhahra in the south of Taez province and wounded eight Houthi rebels, a medic at Al-Thawra hospital said.

The base belongs to the elite Republican Guard which remained loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh after he was forced from power in 2012 following a year of nationwide protests against his three-decade rule.

Saleh has allied his followers with the Houthi rebels, who overran the capital Sanaa in September, in their battle against forces loyal to fugitive President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

On Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition said that it had conducted 1,200 air strikes since March 26 and neutralized the air and missile capabilities of the rebels and their allies.

The air campaign, which has been accompanied by a naval blockade, was launched as the rebels closed in on Hadi's refuge in Aden.

The president escaped to neighbouring Saudi Arabia as the rebels and their allies entered the port city sparking fierce fighting with his loyalists.


[With AFP]