Saudi-led coalition warplanes pounded Yemen’s Shia rebels for a sixth day on Tuesday, destroying missiles and weapons depots and for the first time using warships to bomb the rebel-held airport and eastern outskirts of the port city of Aden.
The airstrikes’ campaign by Sunni Arab states, which began last week, is meant to halt the advance by the Shiite rebels known as the Houthis who have overrun the country and forced Yemen’s president to flee abroad.
Overnight and into early hours today, the coalition bombed the Iran-backed rebels around the capital, Sanaa, according to Yemeni military officials. The strikes targeted Houthi positions and camps, as well as weapons depots controlled by the rebels, officials said. Meanwhile, Iran said it sent an aid shipment to Yemen, according to the official IRNA news agency Tehran’s first such delivery since the Saudi-led airstrikes started last Thursday.
The aid contained 19 tons of medicines and medical equipment and two tons of food provided by the Iranian Red Crescent, IRNA said. The agency reported that the aid was delivered by air early Tuesday but did not say where the cargo landed.