A Saudi Arabian-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen unleashed a barrage of airstrikes on the capital and a strategic Red Sea city, officials said yesterday.
At least seven people were killed.
The overnight airstrikes on Sana’a and Hodeida — which are held by the Houthis — came a day after the rebels attacked an oil depot in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, their highest-profile assault yet on the kingdom.
Photo: AFP
Brigadier General Turki al-Malki, a spokesman for the coalition, said that its strikes targeted “sources of threat” to Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The coalition intercepted and destroyed two explosives-laden drones early yesterday, al-Malki said.
The drones were launched from Houthi-held civilian oil facilities in Hodeida, he said, adding that civilians should stay away from oil facilities in the city.
Photo: Reuters
Footage circulated online showed flames and plumes of smoke over Sana’a and Hodeida.
Houthi officials said that the coalition airstrikes hit a power plant, a fuel supply station and the state-run social insurance office in the capital.
A Houthi media office said that an airstrike hit houses for guards of the social insurance office, killing at least seven people and wounding three others, including women and children.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The office shared images it said showed the aftermath of the airstrike.
It showed wreckage in the courtyard of a social insurance office with the shattered windows of a nearby multiple-story building.
In Hodeida, the Houthi media office said the coalition hit oil facilities in contravention of a 2018 ceasefire deal that ended months of fighting in Hodeida, which handles about 70 percent of Yemen’s commercial and humanitarian imports.
The strikes also hit the nearby Port Salif, also on the Red Sea.
The Houthis’ attack of Friday came ahead of a Formula One race in the kingdom today, raising concerns about Saudi Arabia’s ability to defend itself against the Iranian-backed rebels.
Friday’s attack targeted the same fuel depot that the Houthis had attacked in recent days — the North Jeddah Bulk Plant, which is southeast of the city’s international airport.
Al-Malki said that a fire at the oil facility in Jeddah damaged two tanks and was put out without injuries.
“This hostile escalation targets oil facilities and aims to undermine energy security and the backbone of global economy,” al-Malki said. “These hostile attacks had no impact or repercussions in any way, shape or form on public life in Jeddah.”
Formula One organizers said that its race in Saudi Arabia would go ahead as scheduled.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS