At least 30 people were killed in airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition in northern Yemen on Monday, medical sources and officials said, one year after the Houthis took control of the country’s capital, Sana’a.
Thousands of Houthi supporters gathered in Sana’a to celebrate the anniversary, despite relentless airstrikes by the Saudi-led alliance, France24 reported.
The coalition and forces loyal to Yemen’s fugitive president Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi meanwhile, appear to be making scant gains in a ground offensive in the central desert against Houthi forces.
A coalition jet fired a missile on Monday into police headquarters in the Al-Shaghadreh district of the northern province of Hajjah, northwest of Sana’a, regional officials said.
A second missile caused a large number of casualties, including at least 30 dead, according to medics on the scene.
Earlier in the day, coalition warplanes bombed a cement factory at Ibs, another Hajjah district. Local officials said the strike happened before workers arrived for work, but three shepherds who happened to be tending flocks nearby died.
The Saudi-led military coalition began bombing Yemen in late March to restore Hadi to power and repel Houthi forces.
Hadi in Aden
Hadi landed in Yemen’s Aden on Tuesday, airport sources said, returning to the southern port city for the first time since he escaped to Saudi Arabia.
A government source said Hadi would spend the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday in the city then fly to New York to deliver a speech at the United Nations.
Hadi was greeted by several ministers who had returned to Aden last week to help set up an interim administration.
