YEMEN AIRSTRIKES MOVE INTO DAY FIVE
Warplanes from the Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen destroyed arms depots overnight in day five of its offensive, Saudi website Al Arabiya reports. This comes after the weekend’s Arab summit in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, where Sunni nations agreed to form what The Washington Times describes as a “NATO-like alliance.”
- Writing in the Saudi newspaper Arab News, journalist Mohammed Fahad Al-Harthi says the summit “can be the beginning of a new phase in joint Arab action and the credibility of Arab countries if decisions are translated into reality.”
- Saudi ambassador to the U.S. Adel al-Jubeir said that the agreement didn’t involve immediate plans for a ground invasion of Yemen. But Jubeir insisted that the Sunni coalition was in a “war of necessity” against the Iran-backed Shia Houthi rebels. A Saudi spokesman said yesterday that the airstrikes would continue until President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who fled the country last week, could rule.
