Saudi: Saudi-led coalition troops have bombed Houthi targets in Yemen for a third consecutive night, and claim to be in complete control of Yemen’s airspace.
The air strikes early on Saturday hit targets in the city of Hudaydah on the Red Sea Coast, the Houthi stronghold of Saada in the north, and military installations in and around the capital Sanaa.
The air strikes also struck the base of Yemen’s former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled the country for more than 30 years. Saleh is believed to have fled to Sanhan, near the capital.
The air strikes come amid reports of ground fighting between forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Houthi rebels in the southern port of Aden.
The spokesman for the Arab coalition bombing Houthi targets in Yemen, Brigadier General Ahmed Asiri, said that Saudi Arabia and its allies will do whatever it takes to stop Yemen’s second largest city from falling to the Shia rebels.
Asiri said in Riyadh on Friday that the coalition’s “main objective [is] to protect the government in Aden”.
Asiri’s comments came as a US defence official told Al Jazeera that US forces had rescued two Saudi airmen on Thursday who had ejected from their F-15 fighter jets over the Gulf of Aden. The official said a HH-60 helicopter from Djibouti recovered the Saudi airmen in international waters.
The defence official said the rescue took place at Saudi Arabia’s request and a statement issued by the White House said that Saudi’s King Salman had thanked US President Barack Obama in a phone call.
Saudi Arabia’s state news agency reported that the fighter plane had been “stricken by a technical fault”.
