Saudi air strikes slam Houthi-controlled presidential palace

The Saudi-led coalition executed air strikes into the Houthi-controlled presidential palace at mid-day yesterday, Al Jazeera reported.

Some six Yemenis were killed in the attack, while 30 others sustained injuries. Eyewitnesses at the scene of the attack, according to Al Jazeera, heard two explosions at the palace which is based near a hotel, several shops and a central bank.

Saudi quagmire in Yemen – Cartoon [Latuff/MiddleEastMonitor]

The Education Ministry condemned the attack on the presidential palace as an act of “aggression” in a statement, the Houthi-run Yemen News Agency SABA reported. The statement claimed that the air strikes are a war crime, as they were executed in a densely populated area during working hours.

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“The aggression against this treacherous and cowardly act opens the options for the Yemeni people, its armed forces and its popular committees on a large scale to respond strongly and by all means and methods available within the legitimate right to self-defence,” General Sharif Ghaleb Luqman, spokesman for the Yemen arms forces, said.

Last year, Saudi Arabia targeted a residential flat in the capital Sana’a killing 12 Yemenis, six of them children. After some investigation, the Saudi-led coalition blamed a “technical error” for the “unintentional accident”.

Three years after the Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict, Yemen has witnessed more than 10,000 deaths, according to the United Nations, and civilians remain trapped in the middle of cross fire, with dwindling supplies of basic amenities and a lack of access to sufficient water, sanitation and food.