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.
