The Saudi-led coalition carried out airstrikes and ground
operations on Houthi rebel targets Saturday, a day after the rebels killed
dozens of coalition troops in an attack on a weapons storage depot, a Saudi
military spokesman said.
Coalition
warplanes on Friday struck the site from which the Houthis launched the missile
attack, spokesman Ahmed Asseri told state broadcaster al-Ekhbariya.
"This
incident will not dissuade the coalition forces from accomplishing our
goals," Asseri said. "The operation continues."
Those killed in
Friday's attack included 10 Saudi soldiers, 45 troops from the United Arab
Emirates and five from Bahrain, Asseri said earlier. The state-run Bahrain News
Agency also confirmed the five deaths.
Two senior
officials from the Houthi-controlled defense ministry claimed 25 Yemeni
coalition forces also were killed in the attack in Marib, east of Sanaa. It was
not immediately clear how the Houthis knew the death toll.
Asseri called it
the deadliest single attack on coalition soldiers since the start of its
operation against Houthi rebels in March.
The UAE's
Ministry of Presidential Affairs announced a three-day official mourning period
starting Saturday as the bodies of the dead began arriving in Abu Dhabi. Radio
and television stations in the nation suspended programming as a mark of
respect.
Deposed Yemeni
President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi met with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh
Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and expressed his condolences, official news agency WAM reported Saturday.
"Our armed
forces heroes in the battlefields are more resolved and determined to liberate
Yemen and flush out the scum after the tragic incident," it quoted Sheikh
Mohammed as saying.
The missile
strike triggered a series of explosions and destroyed four Apache helicopters
and a number of missile launchers, the two Houthi officials told CNN.
The
Iranian-backed Houthis, a minority group that has long held sway in northern
Yemen, took over the capital of Sanaa earlier this year. They are acting as the
government in Yemen while the internationally recognized government is in
exile.
Saudi Arabia
leads a coalition backing Hadi.
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