JEDDAH: The Arab coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi militias in Yemen said Friday it bombed an air base adjacent to the Sanaa international airport “which was being used by the rebels to launch drone and ballistic missile attacks.”
Turki Al-Malki, a spokesman for the coalition, said that no flights or international aid efforts at the airport were affected by the airstrikes targeting Al-Dulaimi Air Base in Sanaa.
He added that Saudi air defense forces on Friday shot down a missile launched by Yemeni insurgents at the southern Saudi border city of Najran. The rocket was fired from Saada in northern Yemen, he said.
Fierce clashes flared between the Houthis and pro-government forces near Hodeidah.
A day after the government offered to restart peace talks with the insurgents, a pro-government military source told AFP that loyalist forces closing in on the Houthi-held Red Sea port city had reached its university.
The advance sparked intense fighting with rebels, with medical workers at two hospitals in the city reporting at least 34 Houthi fighters killed and dozens wounded during the past 24 hours.
Pro-government military officials and a medic in Hodeidah said six loyalist fighters had died in the violence. The fighting began on Thursday evening, backed by coalition airstrikes, they said.
A pro-government force backed by the UAE said it had launched “a large-scale military operation to liberate and cleanse Hodeidah” of the Houthi rebels.
