Riyadh vows to bring stability to Yemen

Saudi, Houthi forces exchange heavy artillery fire; nearly 50 dead in air strikes

DUBAI:

A Saudi-led alliance will pursue an offensive against Houthi forces opposed to Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi until Yemen is stable, said Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal on Tuesday.

“We are not the ones calling for war. But if you bang the drums of war, we are ready for it,” he told the kingdom’s Shura Council, according to the advisory body’s Twitter feed.

The operation “will continue to defend legitimacy in Yemen until it achieves its aims, and Yemen is returned to security, stability and unity,” he was quoted as saying.

On Tuesday, Saudi and Iran-allied Houthi forces exchanged artillery fire in several locations along the border in what residents of the area said was the heaviest fighting there since hostilities started last week.

An air strike killed nearly 50 people at a camp for displaced people in north Yemen on Monday, humanitarian workers said, in an attack which apparently targeted nearby Houthi fighters. Yemen’s state news agency Saba, which is under the control of the Houthis, said the camp at Haradh was hit by Saudi planes.

It said the dead included women and children, and showed the bodies of five children laid out on a blood-streaked floor. Saudi military spokesman Brig Gen Ahmed Asseri said the kingdom was seeking clarification on the incident.



Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it would only send ground troops into Yemen against the Houthi militia if such operations became necessary, after the fiercest day of clashes on the border since it began air strikes began last week.

“There could be a limited ground operation, in specific areas, at specific times. But don’t expect there to be a resort automatically to a ground operation,” said Asseri.

Six days of air strikes have targeted Houthi-held military hardware, from jets and tanks to anti-aircraft cannons and ballistic missiles, but have so far failed to eject the militia from cities or other territory it holds.  Yemen’s Foreign Minister Riyadh Yaseen, who has sought shelter in Saudi Arabia, called for an Arab ground intervention as soon as possible to “save Yemenis under siege” from the Houthis and their allies.

The two main areas of operations have been around the southern city of Aden, the last major centre still held by forces loyal to the Yemeni president, and northern parts of Yemen near the kingdom’s southern border. Other air strikes have attacked targets in Sanaa and elsewhere in the country.

Saudi land forces have attacked Houthi positions near the border for several days using both artillery and Apache aircraft, the military spokesman said.

“When the coalition forces confirm the need for land operation, it will not hesitate to carry this out,” he affirmed during a news conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Asked whether Saudi Arabia or other coalition countries were reinforcing the border area with additional forces, Asseri said the military presence already there was “good enough to address the threat”.


Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2015.