Saudi Arabia launches strikes against Houthi aggression in Yemen

ADEN: Saudi Arabia carried out air strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen on Wednesday, launching an operation by a regional coalition to save the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
The airstrikes were announced by the Saudi ambassador to the US, with Washington saying that President Barack Obama has authorized the “provision of logistical and intelligence support” to the military operation.
The statement came as Gulf states said they will answer Hadi’s plea for intervention against the Shiite militia that has closed in on the city of Aden, where he took refuge after fleeing the capital Sanaa.
Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE along with Saudi Arabia said they “have decided to answer the call of President Hadi to protect Yemen and his people from the aggression of the (Shiite) Houthi militia.”
Saudi envoy Adel Al-Jubeir told reporters in Washington that the operation “is to defend and support the legitimate government of Yemen and prevent the radical Houthi movement from taking over the country.”
Al-Jubeir said that for the moment the action was confined to air strikes on various targets around Yemen, but that other military assets were being mobilized and that the coalition “would do whatever it takes.”
“The Royal Saudi Air Force has taken out the Houthi air defenses and destroyed numerous Houthi fighter planes,” a Saudi adviser said, adding that airforce “has pretty much secured most of the Yemeni air space and is now consolidating a wide no-fly zone.”
Military sources said rebel positions were hit at various locations in Sanaa, including at Al-Daylami airbase and the adjacent international airport in north Sanaa, as well as the presidential complex seized by the rebels in January.
Huge explosions were heard in Sanaa as strikes hit the airbase at Sanaa airport and other locations in the capital, an AFP correspondent reported.
In the south, residents reported hearing large blasts at Al-Anad main airbase, north of Aden, which was seized by anti-government forces Wednesday.
The Saudi adviser said his country’s defense minister has warned the son of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, “who is commanding the attack on Aden that his forces face ‘obliteration’ if they continue their push toward Aden.”
Aides to Hadi said that the Western-backed president had been taken to a safe haven “within Aden,” where he fled last month.
Washington said it had been in touch with Hadi and that he was no longer at his residence, but it was unable to say where he was.
Hadi appealed to the UN Security Council on Tuesday to “shoulder its responsibilities... to safeguard Yemen from sliding into more chaos and destruction.”
One of Hadi’s advisers said Saleh was the man pulling the strings as the rebels advanced.
“The Houthis are puppets in the hands of Saleh,” the Riyadh-based Yassin Makkawi told AFP.