Yemen’s Houthis Advance Despite Continued Saudi-Led Strikes

Houthi Leader Blasts Saudi Aggression

by Jason Ditz,

Yemen’s Houthi forces, which control the capital city of Sanaa and most of the nation’s west coast, are continuing to make major gains across the nation’s south and east, in spite of a Saudi war against them.

Saudi warplanes and those of their allies continue to pound Houthi targets across the country, focusing in particular on the capital, but other than reports of some civilian casualties and locals hearing a lot of explosions, it’s unclear that the strikes are doing much to change the situation on the ground.

Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi has vowed not to surrender to the Saudi attacks, and slammed the planned invasion as unjustified aggression. Yemeni FM Raid Yassin also urged the Saudis to finish their air war as quickly as possible.

The Saudis have lost a warplane already in the war, an F-15 two-seater, and US officials confirmed that a US HH-60 helicopter from Djibouti was dispatched to rescue the pilots.

Saudi Arabia began the attacks on Wednesday and has 10 nations cooperating in the war. They have some 150,000 ground troops positioned along the Yemeni border and an unknown number of Egyptian troops are planing to join them from ship-based transports.

http://news.antiwar.com/2015/03/27/yemens-houthis-advance-despite-continued-saudi-strikes/