[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] The Saudi-led coalition said on Saturday it had hit Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
with 130 air strikes over the previous 24 hours, and a senior UN official said some attacks violated international law.
The coalition of Arab states had called on civilians to evacuate Saada, the city in northern Yemen where support for Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the
Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is
God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews...
rebels is strongest, before the bombing but it was unclear how they could leave.
"The indiscriminate bombing of populated areas, with or without prior warning, is in contravention of international humanitarian law," the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen Johannes van der Klaauw said in a statement later in the day.
"Many civilians are effectively trapped in Saada as they are unable to access transport because of the fuel shortage. The targeting of an entire governorate will put countless civilians at risk."
A coalition front man said the latest wave of aerial bombing, on about 100 locations, was in response to the shelling of Saudi border areas by Houthi forces this week.
The air strikes targeted bases of Houthi leaders across Saada and Hajja provinces, said Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, as well as hitting tanks and other military vehicles.
Other strikes targeted Sanaa airport's runway, a Yemeni official there said, and Houthi targets in the al-Sadda district of Ibb in central Yemen, residents there said.
In the southern port city of Aden, festivities continued on Friday and Saturday in the central Crater, Khor Maksar and Mualla districts as the Houthis and forces loyal to former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
shelled local militias trying to oust them from the city.
However,
a clean conscience makes a soft pillow...
the Houthis were pushed back from parts of Dar al-Saad in the city's north into restive Lahj
... a Yemeni governate located in the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. It is the stomping grounds on the southern secessionist al-Harak movement
Province, local militias said, and faced fighting in al-Dhala Province.
In Shabwa province, east of Aden, four men including a suspected al Qaeda leader were killed in a drone strike, local officials said.