Yemen’s Houthi rebels have suspended all attacks on Saudi Arabia for three days after the Gulf coalition launched airstrikes on the capital Sana’a and the port city of Hodeidah on Saturday. The airstrikes were launched in retaliation to a barrage of drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia by the Houthis, including a strike on an Aramco oil plant in Jeddah.
The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, released a statement saying that their political leader, Mahdi al-Mashat, had on Saturday announced the “suspension of missile and drone strikes and all military actions against Saudi Arabia by land, sea and air for three days.” The statement noted that Yemen is ready to “turn this procedure into a permanent commitment if Saudi Arabia announced the withdrawal of all foreign forces.”
Furthermore, Al-Mashat said that the Houthis will “release all captives of the Saudi-led coalition […] in exchange for the full release of all Sana’a captives in the coalition custody.” He also called on the United Nations envoy to Yemen “to arrange procedures and facilitate executive agreements of the prisoner exchange in full or in instalments.”
However, the Houthi calls for a permanent settlement to the conflict were spurned by the Saudi-led coalition, which launched another round of deadly airstrikes “on Houthi camps and strongholds in Sana’a” as well as the rebel-held cities of Hodeidah and Marib. The Houthis claimed that the strikes targeted health and other civilian facilities and said there were several casualties, without giving an exact number.
Saudi-led coalition carries out airstrikes in Yemen, despite Houthi rebels’ announcement of three-day truce on Saturday pic.twitter.com/RaR9whmnWO
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) March 27, 2022
The coalition airstrikes on Saturday killed at least eight civilians, including women and children, the Houthis said.
The coalition claimed that the airstrikes were carried out in response to a wave of ballistic missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia. Coalition official Turki Al-Maliki said the strikes targeted “sources of threat” to Riyadh, including two armed drones.
BREAKING: Houthi missile hits Aramco oil facility in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia pic.twitter.com/0TnMQ7s76Q
— BNO News (@BNONews) March 25, 2022
On Friday, the Houthis launched a barrage of missiles on Saudi Arabia that also struck an Aramco oil facility in Jeddah where a Formula One race was scheduled to take place two days later. No casualties were reported and the event took place on Sunday without any disruptions. However, the coalition called the strikes an “act of aggression” and blamed Iran for backing the rebels and aiming “to undermine energy security and the backbone of global economy.”
A plume of dense smoke could be seen in the Saudi city of Jeddah after a Houthi missile attack on an Aramco oil depot. pic.twitter.com/fph6gZkCiF
— DW News (@dwnews) March 26, 2022
Recently, both the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition have engaged in tit-for-tat attacks against each other. While the coalition has launched a series of airstrikes against the rebels in their strongholds in Yemen, especially in Marib, the Houthis have resorted to launching ballistic missiles and armed drones to target Saudi and Emirati cities and oil facilities.
Last month, three people, including two Indians, were killed. Similarly, on Monday, six people were wounded in a Houthi drone attack on the Musaffah industrial area near Abu Dhabi’s international airport; the attack also led to a fire in the airport.
The unrest in Yemen began in 2014 when a civil war broke out between the Houthis and the internationally recognised Yemeni government, which was ousted in the same year by the rebels. In 2015, a Saudi-led coalition, including the UAE, launched a major offensive in Yemen by conducting airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas. Since then, there has been no end in sight to the war, and international efforts to halt the fighting have largely failed.
The war has killed more than 130,000 people, with the United Nations calling the conflict in Yemen “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”