Strikes come two days after Saudi Arabia intercepted two ballistic missiles the Houthis launched towards the kingdom [Khaled Abdullah/Reuters]
The Saudi-UAE coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen carried out more than a dozen air strikes on the capital Sanaa, the first such attacks on the city in months.
According to Houthi-run Al Masirah TV, the coalition launched 19 air raids on Monday. No casualties were reported so far.
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The attacks on Sanaa came after Saudi Arabia intercepted two ballistic missiles the Houthis said they had launched on Saturday towards Riyadh and southern parts of the kingdom near the Yemeni border.
The Houthi attack coincided with the fifth anniversary of Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen’s civil war.
Al Jazeera’s Mohammed al-Attab, reporting from Sanaa, said about 25 air strikes hit the capital on Monday, the first such attack on the city in months.
“The ministry of health has condemned the Saudi bombing,” he said.
Pandemic threat
On Sunday, UN Yemen Envoy Martin Griffiths reiterated a call for an immediate cessation of hostilities to build momentum for a nationwide ceasefire, especially in light of the current coronavirus pandemic.
“Yemen needs its leaders to focus every minute of their time on averting and mitigating the potentially disastrous consequences of a COVID-19 outbreak,” Griffiths said in a statement overnight, referring to the respiratory illness coronavirus causes.
Yemen has not recorded any cases of the coronavirus, according to the World Health Organization.
Tens of thousands of people, many of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict, relief agencies say.
Airports, ports, bridges and roads have all been repeatedly attacked. Farms, schools, oil and gas facilities, factories and private businesses have also been targeted.
The fighting has triggered what the UN describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with millions displaced and in need of aid.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
