Malaysian troops join Arab coalition

Malaysian troops on Sunday arrived at Saudi Royal Air Force base to participate in the Saudi-led coalition to support the legitimacy in Yemen under Operation Restoring Hope.
Malaysia has become the 12th country to join the coalition after Senegal which is sending 2,100 troops to fight the Houthis and the forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The Ministry of Defense explained that the coalition’s operations center is preparing for incorporating the Malaysian and Senegalese forces into the ranks and determining the nature of tasks assigned to them.
Houthi militias in Yemen, meanwhile, accepted a five-day humanitarian cease-fire proposed by Saudi Arabia, according to Reuters.
In another significant development, Saudi artillery pounded positions inside Yemen after renewed rocket fire wounded four women in Najran on Sunday, the coalition said.
In an interview with AFP, coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Ahmad Al-Assiri said Saudi-led forces would continue retaliating against targets over the border until the 11 p.m. Tuesday cease-fire deadline, “if they continue to fire their rockets toward our cities, our population.”
He also defended the coalition against suggestions by aid groups that its aerial bombing has been “indiscriminate.”
He pointed out: “Such militia should be judged by their acts, not by what they tell the media. Let’s wait (until) Tuesday 11 p.m.”
Al-Assiri emphasized: “We do not conduct any operation in cities,” even though Houthis hide with their weapons among the population. We had from Day One the restriction from our leaders.”
Asked how the rebels were able to strike the Kingdom if the threat had been removed, Al-Assiri said: “Imagine if they fired Scuds instead of Katyusha, what would be the result? They were controlling the Scuds.”
He said: “From Day One, when we talked about the air campaign one of the most important targets was to find those Scuds and to destroy them. This is what we did.”
The coalition conducted new airstrikes on the residence of Saleh in Sanaa. Saleh, later, appeared in a video in front of his destroyed house officially confirming his alliance with the Houthis.