Arab coalition hits Houthi targets in Yemen

SANAA, Yemen (AA) – The Saudi-led Arab coalition in Yemen on Thursday said it carried out a wide military operation against Houthi targets in four Yemeni provinces.

“We carried out a wide-scale operation against legitimate military targets in response to the ballistic and drones threats,” the Saudi official news agency SPA cited a statement by the coalition as saying.

The statement also said "(military) workshops and stores for ballistic missiles, drones, and communications systems" were destroyed.

It added that among the targeted military positions, there were secret locations for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the Lebanese Hezbollah group "involved in the hostile attacks" on the Saudi territories.

There was no comment from the Iranian authorities and the Hezbollah group.

Meanwhile, the Houthi-run Saba news agency quoted a security source as saying that the coalition warplanes carried out five airstrikes on the capital, three airstrikes on the Dhahban area of the Bani al-Harith district in northern Sanaa, and two airstrikes on the al-Nahdayen area of the Al-Sabeen district in central Sanaa.

Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, regularly launch rocket, drone, and boat attacks on Saudi targets, saying they are a reaction to the Saudi-led coalition’s assault on Yemen.

Yemen has been engulfed by violence and instability since 2014, when Houthi rebels captured much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

A Saudi-led coalition aimed at reinstating the Yemeni government has worsened the situation and caused one of the world’s worst man-made humanitarian crises, with 233,000 people killed, nearly 80% or about 30 million needing humanitarian assistance and protection, and more than 13 million in danger of starvation, according to UN estimates.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara