PM:01:22:29/08/2021
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SULAIMANI — Strikes on Yemen's largest airbase Sunday killed
at least 30 pro-government troops and wounded scores more, said medical and
loyalist sources who blamed Iran-backed Houthi rebels for the attack.
The strikes were carried out on Al-Anad airbase, some 60
kilometres (40 miles) north of Yemen's second city Aden in the south of the
conflict-riven country.
The airbase served as the headquarters for US troops
overseeing a long-running drone war against Al-Qaeda until March 2014 when it
was overrun by the Houthi rebels.
"More than 30 have been killed and at least 56 were
injured" in the strikes on the airbase in the government-held southern
province of Lahij, armed forces spokesman Mohammed al-Naqib told AFP.
Video footage from the scene showed dozens of people
gathered in front of Lahij hospital, where one ambulance after another was
pulling up to drop off casualties.
An official from the hospital said it was all hands on deck.
"We have called on the entire staff, surgeons and
nurses, to come in," Mohsen Murshid told AFP.
"We also know that there are still bodies under the
rubble".
Naqib had in an earlier statement accused Yemen's Shiite Houthi
rebels of carrying out missile and drone strikes on the facility.
There was no immediate comment from the rebel side.
A military medic confirmed the death toll after it jumped
from seven fatalities earlier in the day.
- Airbase attacked in 2019 -
Yemen's internationally recognised government -- backed by a
Saudi-led military coalition -- and the Houthis have been locked in war since
2014, when the insurgents seized the capital Sanaa.
In 2019, the Houthis said they launched a drone strike on
Al-Anad during a military parade, with medics and government sources saying
that at least six loyalists were killed -- including a high-ranking
intelligence official.
Eleven people were wounded in that attack, including Yemen's
deputy chief of staff Major General Saleh al-Zandani who later died of his
injuries.
Al-Anad was recaptured by government forces in August 2015
as they recovered territory from the rebels across the south with support from
the Saudi-led coalition.
Sunday's incident is one of the deadliest since December
2020, when blasts targeting cabinet members rocked Aden airport.
At the time, at least 26 people, including three members of
the International Committee of the Red Cross and a journalist, were killed and
scores wounded in the explosions as ministers disembarked from an aircraft in
the southern city.
Yemen's grinding conflict has claimed tens of thousands of
lives and displaced millions, resulting in what the United Nations calls the
world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Some 80 percent of Yemen's 30-million population are
dependent on some form of aid for survival.
While the UN is pushing for an end to the war, the Houthis
have demanded the re-opening of Sanaa airport, closed under a Saudi blockade
since 2016, before any ceasefire or negotiations.
The incoming UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg,
will officially assume his duties on September 5.
(NRT Digital Media/AFP)
This story was updated at 2:21 p.m. EBL