SANAA –
Residents in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa say there has been a wave of airstrikes that have hit targets in the city this morning, including a residential house; with Saudi-led coalition jets bombing military sites belonging to the rebel Houthis who have been at war with the coalition since 2015.
The airstrikes came after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who control the capital, launched a coordinated drone attack on a critical oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia, Tehran’s biggest rival in the region. It was the latest incident to shake global energy markets.
Meanwhile, Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman wrote on Twitter on Thursday that Tehran had ordered “the terrorist acts” carried out by the Houthis against the oil pipeline. He said the attack proves the Houthis “are merely a tool that Iran’s regime used to implement its expansionist agenda in the region.”
Yemen’s Health Ministry has raised the death toll saying six people were killed, including four children. The ministry says 41 people were also wounded, including two women of Russian nationality.
Al-Jazeera cited an anonymous official on Wednesday night as saying that Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani had traveled to Tehran in recent days to speak with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif. A flight-tracking website, showed a Qatari government airplane landed in Tehran on Saturday.
Qatar hosts the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command at its vast Al-Udeid Air Base. Several of the B-52 bombers ordered by the White House to the region amid the latest escalation between Washington and Tehran are stationed there.
Qatar has grown closer to Iran diplomatically amid it begin boycotted by four Arab nations over a political dispute.
