Arab coalition slams Houthi attack on Yemen’s UN envoy

By Ahmed al-Masri and Ali Owaida

DOHA (AA) - The Arab coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Tuesday condemned an “assassination attempt” against UN envoy Islami Ould Cheikh Ahmed in the capital Sanaa.

The envoy’s convoy reportedly came under fire as he left the Sanaa airport for talks to resolve the conflict in the war-torn country.

This attempt “aims to derail UN efforts to reach a peaceful solution to the crisis,” the coalition said in a statement cited by the official Saudi SPA news agency.

It blamed Houthi rebels and allied forces of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh for “such treacherous, coward and irresponsible acts”.

The Yemeni government had earlier termed the attack on the UN envoy as an “assassination attempt”.

Yemen fell into civil war in 2014 after Houthi rebels and allies overran the capital Sanaa and other provinces, forcing the government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi to flee to Riyadh.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi military gains and shoring up Yemen’s pro-Saudi government.

According to UN officials, more than 10,000 Yemenis have been killed in the conflict to date, while more than 11 percent of the country’s total population have been displaced as a direct result of the fighting.