Agencies
Sanaa
Strong blasts rocked the Yemeni capital yesterday after the Saudi-led coalition vowed to press its air war following a rebel missile strike that killed 60 Gulf soldiers.
The United Arab Emirates had pledged to quickly avenge its heaviest ever military loss after 45 of its soldiers were killed in Friday’s missile attack, along with 10 Saudis and five Bahrainis.
The UAE is part of the Arab coalition formed in March aimed at reversing the gains of Iran-backed Shia Houthi rebels and at restoring the rule of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Yesterday’s coalition air raids, coinciding with funerals in the Emirates, pounded positions of the rebels and renegade troops loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Coalition warplanes struck military bases on the capital’s Nahdain and Fajj Attan hills and the neighbouring presidential complex, south of Sanaa, as well as a headquarters for special forces.
Also targeted were Houthi positions in the northern neighbourhoods of Sufan and Al Nahda, forcing scores of residents to flee, witnesses said.
Yesterday’s bombardment was one of the heaviest of the six-month-old air campaign.
“The first strike after dawn prayers shook our house,” said Sadeq al-Juhayfi, a resident of Al Haffa, southeast of Sanaa, where a military base was targeted.
Witnesses in the area said explosions were still heard at around midday at the base, suggesting it housed an arms depot.
Meanwhile, normally bustling areas of the capital remained empty and shops were mostly shuttered.
Students taking exams at Abdulrazzaq al-Sanaani high school, in Hadda neighbourhood, said they abandoned their tests and fled.
The streets of Sanaa were largely deserted.
“We usually get hundreds of customers... Today, workers have run away and there are no people in the street,” said Kamal al-Majidi, a waiter at a restaurant in Hadda.
Elsewhere, coalition warplanes hit rebel positions in Bayhan, in the southern province of Shabwa, military sources said.
The Houthi rebels, who have long complained of marginalisation, descended from their northern stronghold last year and seized Sanaa unopposed before advancing on second city Aden in March.
The Houthis said Friday’s missile attack was “revenge” for the six months of deadly air raids, but the coalition vowed there would be no let-up in its air war.
The coalition launched the bombing campaign when President Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia in March after the rebels entered his last refuge, Aden.
After loyalists recaptured the southern port in July, the coalition launched a ground operation that has seen the rebels pushed back from five southern provinces, although they still control Sanaa and much of the north and centre.
For the UAE, Friday’s losses were the heaviest for its military since the formation of the federation in 1971, and it has vowed to retaliate.
“Our revenge shall not take long,” warned Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed.
“We will press ahead until we purge Yemen of the scum,” he was quoted as saying in Emirati media.
UAE newspapers displayed images of funerals across the country for the slain soldiers, while schools in Abu Dhabi observed a one-minute silence yesterday.
National radio and television stations have played music and special Qur’anic recitals to honour the fallen soldiers.
The Houthis said they had used a Tochka missile to attack the Safer camp in Marib province of eastern Yemen.
Marib has seen fierce fighting as loyalist forces and their coalition allies have advanced north.
Loyalist military sources said the coalition had reinforced Safer this week with tanks, armoured vehicles, troop carriers, rocket launchers and Apache helicopters.
UAE forces were important in helping Hadi’s forces drive the Houthis and their allies out of Aden, a big win for the Arab coalition.
But security has yet to be restored in the port city, where unidentified vandals dug up several graves and smashed headstones at a cemetery that Britain, the city’s former colonial ruler, had maintained after it left some 50 years ago, a local official said.
A local Yemeni official accused the Houthis of hiring the vandals to destabilise the city and prevent order returning. The Houthis say Al Qaeda is operating in areas under Hadi’s control.   
More than 4,500 people have been killed in the conflict, including hundreds of children, according to the United Nations, which has warned that Yemen is on the brink of famine.