Smoke billows from the Faj Attan Hill following a reported air strike by the Saudi-led coalition on an army arms depot, now under Huthi rebel control, on April 20, 2015, in Sanaa. PHOTO: AFP
SANAA: At least 15 civilians were killed in explosions that followed an air strike by Saudi-led coalition warplanes on a missile depot in the rebel-held Yemeni capital on Monday, medics said.
Dozens more were wounded, medics said, as scores of nearby houses and vehicles were destroyed in the raid on the base on Fajj Attan hill, south of Sanaa, witnesses said.
The base belongs to the missile brigade of the elite Republican Guard, which remains loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh who has been accused of siding with Houthi rebels in their fight against the government.
Read: Saudi special forces 'involved in Yemen ops'
Fires broke out at the base, at a nearby petrol station and shops at the foot of the hill, witnesses said, with the searing heat keeping people away.
The explosions rocked buildings in several neighbourhoods across the city, witnesses said.
Among those killed in the blast were two employees of local television channel al yemen al Youm, whose offices are nearby. Ten more employees were wounded, according to emergency services.
In the fourth week of the Saudi-led campaign against the rebels, warplanes hit several positions across the capital on Monday including another Republican Guard base east of Sanaa, witnesses said.
Read: At least 76 dead in Yemen air raids, fighting
Riyadh last month assembled a Sunni Arab coalition that launched an air war against the rebels as they closed in on embattled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in his refuge in the southern port city of Aden, which he has since fled for Saudi Arabia.
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