Saudi-led coalition strikes Yemen's Houthi-held capital

By Murad Erifi and Mohamed al-Samei

SANAA, Yemen (AA) - A Saudi-led Arab coalition on Wednesday conducted airstrikes in and around Sanaa one day after Yemen's Shia Houthi militia group fired a missile at Saudi capital Riyadh.

A Houthi source told Anadolu Agency that a commercial warehouse in Sanaa’s Sawad Hanash district had been struck by three separate airstrikes.

The source, who spoke anonymously as he was not authorized to speak to the media, added that two other airstrikes had targeted the city's House of Representatives building while a third had struck a nearby military camp.

According to the same source, coalition warplanes also struck the Rima Hamid and Al-Sawad camps, along with the Jabal Zafar area on Sanaa's outskirts.

The source could not provide any information regarding death or injury tolls.

In a related development, the Yemeni army on Wednesday claimed to have captured two more strategic positions from the Houthis in Taiz province.

Abdel Basit al-Bahr, an army spokesman in Taiz, told Anadolu Agency that army forces had seized the Jabal Said and Al-Khazan Hill areas of Taiz's Maqbanah directorate.

The two positions, al-Bahr said, are strategically located on the main highway linking Taiz to the coastal city of Aden.

Since mid-2015, the Houthis have maintained control over Taiz’s primary highways, with the exception of the southwestern road leading to Aden.

Yemen has remained dogged by violence and chaos since 2014, when the Houthis overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.

The conflict escalated one year later after Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi military gains and shoring up Yemen's Saudi-backed government.