Yemen’s Houthis say ready to halt attacks on Saudi

By Mohammed al-Samei

SANAA (AA) – Yemen’s rebel Houthi group said Tuesday it was ready to stop rocket fire into Saudi Arabia in return for a Saudi-led coalition halting air raids in the country.

“We are ready to stop missile attacks beyond Yemeni border in return for halting airstrikes,” Houthi leader Saleh al-Sammad said in a ceremony marking the 1962 revolution, which erupted against the Mutawakklite Kingdom in Yemen.

Yemen fell into civil war in 2014 when Houthi rebels overran the capital Sanaa and much of the country, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee to Saudi Arabia.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi gains in Yemen.

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