Saudi-led alliance attacks sites in Yemen’s Sanaa

CAIRO (Reuters) -The Saudi-led military alliance in Yemen said on Tuesday it had destroyed a ballistic missile launch site in overnight air strikes in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa, where residents reported big explosions.

A broadcaster run by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, Al Masirah TV, said three air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition had hit a residential district of the capital.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

In a statement reported by the Saudi state news agency (SPA) on Twitter, the coalition said air strikes had been conducted against “legitimate military targets” in Sanaa.

It described the ballistic missile sites as “secret”, and said one of “high-value” had been destroyed.

The coalition said it had taken measures to spare civilians any collateral damage, adding that “the secret positions” had used hospitals, organisations and civilians as human shields.

The coalition asked civilians not to gather around or approach the positions that had been attacked.

Residents told Reuters the explosions had rocked the northern neighbourhoods of the city, and said two military sites had been attacked.

The Houthis have repeatedly launched cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia using drones and missiles since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the movement ousted the Saudi-backed government from the capital.

The Houthi movement said on Saturday it had fired 14 drones at several Saudi cities, including at Saudi Aramco facilities in Jeddah. [L1N2SB07K]

The conflict is widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Houthis are pressing an offensive in Marib, the internationally recognised government’s last northern stronghold, as well as in other areas in Yemen.

(Reporting by Alaa Swilam and Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Tom Hogue, Stephen Coates and Timothy Heritage)