Death toll from Saudi attack on Yemen rises to 23

The air raid targeted the Al-Libi district in the northwest of the city. According to the report, five residential buildings have been completely destroyed, and dozens of homes nearby were damaged. Some people are still trapped under the rubble.

The continuing strikes prevented ambulance vehicles from reaching the affected area, and forced rescuers to suspend the search effort.

Late on Monday, the Riyadh-led coalition announced it was resuming its strikes on Sana’a in the wake of a deadly attack on the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Yemeni army forces, backed by allied fighters from Popular Committees, carried out retaliatory airstrikes against strategic facilities deep inside the UAE on Monday, apparently using domestically-manufactured combat drones.

Abu Dhabi police, in a statement published on the official Emirates News Agency WAM, said three fuel tanker trucks had exploded in the industrial Musaffah area, near storage facilities of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), and that a fire had also broken out at a construction site at Abu Dhabi International Airport. At least three people have been killed and six others wounded in the suspected drone attack, according to Emirati authorities.

The Al Mayadeen TV channel reported, citing Spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree, that the targets in the UAE were attacked by five ballistic and cruise missiles and a large number of drones.

The spokesman for Ansarullah movement, Mohammed Abdulsalam, warned Abu Dhabi against severe repercussions should it maintain its acts of sabotage in Yemen.

“A tiny state in the region, which goes to great lengths to serve the United States and Israel, has claimed that it had kept a fair distance from Yemen. The allegations, however, have proven otherwise,” he wrote on his Twitter page.

Abdulsalam added, “Abu Dhabi is recommended to give up its futile actions in Yemen; otherwise its hands and those of its mercenaries will be cut off from the country.”
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“The UAE condemns this terrorist attack by the Houthi militia on areas and civilian facilities on Emirati soil…(It) will not go unpunished,” its foreign ministry said, adding, “The UAE reserves the right to respond to these terrorist attacks and criminal escalation.”

A person familiar with government thinking claimed Monday the UAE will ask the US to put Yemen’s Houthis back on its list of terrorist organizations after the drone attacks, according to Bloomberg.

The UAE will work on building pressure through the United Nations Security Council over the strike and the capture of an Emirati vessel off the coast of Yemen earlier this month, the person added.
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A senior Emirati official told Axios Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Zayed asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call Monday to re-designate the Houthi in Yemen as a “terrorist organization”.
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The White House on Monday condemned the attack by Yemeni forces, pledging to hold the group responsible.

“The United States strongly condemns today’s terrorist attack in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, which killed three innocent civilians,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement Monday afternoon.

“The Houthis have claimed responsibility for this attack, and we will work with the UAE and international partners to hold them accountable,” Sullivan continued, adding, “Our commitment to the security of the UAE is unwavering and we stand beside our Emirati partners against all threats to their territory.”
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Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a war against the Arab world’s most impoverished nation in March 2015. The war has been seeking to restore power in Yemen to Riyadh’s favorite officials.

The death toll of the war, now in its seventh year, will reach an estimated 377,000 by the end of 2021, according to a recent report from the UN’s Development Programme.

The fighting has seen some 80 percent of the population, or 24 million people, relying on aid and assistance, including 14.3 million who are in acute need.