UN staff flee Yemen as arms depots targeted

SANAA  — UN staff were evacuated from Yemen's capital Saturday after a third night of Saudi-led air strikes.

The impoverished and deeply tribal Arabian Peninsula state, on the front line of the US battle against Al Qaeda, is the scene of the latest emerging proxy struggle between Middle East powers.

A Sunni Arab coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies, is battling to avoid having a pro-Iran regime on its doorstep, as Shiite Houthi rebels tighten the noose around President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's southern stronghold Aden.

“I call for this operation to continue until this gang surrenders and withdraws from all locations it has occupied in every province,” Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi told an Arab League summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh (see separate story).

Hadi later flew to Saudi Arabia with King Salman and does not plan to return to Yemen until “the situation settles”, said Foreign Minister Riyad Yassin.

“The Houthis are trying to take it [Aden] by any means to impose a new reality on the ground before the summit ends,” Yassin added.

Heavy coalition strikes shook the rebel-held capital for a third consecutive night until dawn Saturday, residents said.

“It was an intense night of bombing and the windows shook,” said a foreigner working for an international aid organisation in Sanaa.

More than 200 staff from the UN, foreign embassies and other organisations were later evacuated by air, aid workers said.

The latest strikes apparently targeted mainly arms depots and other military facilities outside Sanaa, witnesses said.

Saudi Arabia says more than 10 countries have joined the coalition defending Hadi.

The Western-backed leader had gone into hiding earlier in the week as rebel forces bore down on Aden and a warplane attacked the presidential palace there.

He surfaced in Riyadh Thursday before heading to the Egypt summit.

At least 61 people have been killed and around 200 wounded in three days of fighting between Shiite rebels and anti-Houthi militia in Aden, the city’s health department director Al Kheder Lassouar said.

Nine charred bodies were pulled from an arms depot in a cave near the port city after a series of massive blasts, with the death toll expected to rise, he said.

The cause was not immediately clear but residents had been looting the arsenal of Soviet-era weapons.

The two-day Arab summit, which opened Saturday, is expected to back the offensive against the rebels and approve the creation of a joint military force to tackle extremists.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi told fellow leaders the region faced “unprecedented” threats.

And Saudi King Salman vowed that the air strikes would continue until they bring “security” to the Yemeni people.

But UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Arab leaders to “lay down clear guidelines to peacefully resolve the crisis in Yemen”.

Saudi warships evacuated dozens of foreign diplomats from Aden hours before the kingdom launched the air strikes on the advancing rebels, state television said on Saturday.

Saudi Arabia has vowed to do “whatever it takes” to prevent Hadi’s overthrow.

But experts say the Saudis will be reluctant to send in ground troops for fear of getting bogged down in a protracted conflict.

The Houthis are backed by army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who stepped down in 2012 after a year-long popular uprising and is accused of supporting the rebels.

Saleh issued a call Friday for a ceasefire and the resumption of UN-brokered dialogue between warring parties.

Gulf diplomats said the air strikes could last up to six months and accused Iran of providing “logistical and military support” to the rebels.