Saudi Airstrikes on Sana’a Airport out of Despair, confusion: Yemen

“Sana’a International Airport is a civilian facility. It is out of service due to air blockade and has been bombed several times. Fresh airstrikes against the site could be explained as nothing but complete failure and confusion of the coalition of aggression,” chief negotiator and Ansarullah spokesman, Mohammed Abdul-Salam, wrote in a post published on his official Twitter page on Friday. The remarks came hours after Saudi fighter jets conducted an airstrike against the airport. There were no immediate reports about the extent of damage caused. International humanitarian groups have already censured the Saudi air blockade of Yemen and closure of the airport in the war-torn country’s capital city of Sana’a, arguing that the measure has prevented thousands of sick civilians from traveling abroad for urgent medical treatment. The Norwegian Refugee Council and Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) said in August last year that the suspension of services at Sana'a International Airport has amounted to a "death sentence" for many sick Yemenis. They appealed on Yemen's warring parties to come to an agreement to reopen the airport for commercial flights to “alleviate humanitarian suffering caused by the closure.” Senior Ansarullah official, UN envoy discuss peace efforts in Yemen Separately, President of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat, and Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, discussed peace efforts in Yemen during a meeting on Friday. Mashat stressed the need for concrete humanitarian and economic measures as a prerequisite for the success of any peace talks. He also praised the UN envoy’s efforts, emphasizing that Ansarullah supports any initiative, which safeguards the full rights of Yemeni people and contributes to the success of a desired peace process in Yemen. Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the popular Ansarullah movement. The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives. The Houthi Ansarullah movement, backed by armed forces, has been defending Yemen against the Saudi-led alliance, preventing the aggressors from fulfilling the objectives of the atrocious war.

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