UN flights halted at Sanaa airport after Saudi-led airstrikes

SANAA, Yemen (AA) – UN humanitarian flights have been halted following the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes on Sanaa airport, a Yemeni airport official said on Tuesday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the flights were suspended since Monday evening.

The move came after the Saudi-led coalition carried out airstrike on what it said “legitimate military targets” at the airport.

Raid Jebal, an official with the Houthi-run civil aviation authority, said the airstrikes had left the airport “non-operational”.

He said that the Saudi-led attacks aimed to “hinder humanitarian aid to the Yemeni people”.

The Saudi-led coalition, for its part, said the airstrikes targeted six military locations used to fly and store drones and train militants.

Since 2016, the Saudi-led coalition has halted air navigation at Sanaa airport except for humanitarian flights of the United Nations and other international organizations.

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

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

A recent UN report projected that by the year’s end, the death toll from the seven-year Yemeni conflict will reach 377,000.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara