SAUDI ARABIAN warplanes bombed key military installations in neighbouring Yemen yesterday after announcing a regional coalition to oust the Shi’ite rebels who had forced the country’s pro-US president to flee. 

Some of the strikes hit positions in capital Sanaa and flattened a number of homes near the airport.

The Saudi strikes followed the flight by sea of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi after rebels entered the southern port city of Aden, where he had taken refuge.

Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya News reported that the medievalist autocracy had deployed 100 fighter jets, 150,000 soldiers and navy units in Operation Decisive Storm.

Egyptian security and military officials said later that Saudi Arabia and Egypt would lead a ground operation after a campaign of air strikes to weaken the Shi’ite rebels.

The officials claimed that the intervention aimed to push the rebels into negotiations on power sharing.Iran denounced the operation an “invasion” and a “dangerous step” that would worsen the country’s crisis.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said: “This invasion will achieve no result but expansion of terrorism and extremism throughout the whole region.”

The Shi’ite rebels, known as Houthis, urged their supporters to protest in the streets of Sanaa yesterday afternoon.

TV stations affiliated to the rebels and their ally former president Ali Abdullah Saleh showed the aftermath of the strikes yesterday morning in what appeared to be a residential area.

Al-Masirah TV quoted the Ministry of Health as saying that 18 civilians had been killed and 24 injured.

Yemen Today showed hundreds of residents congregating around flattened houses, some chanting: “Death to Al-Saud” against the kingdom’s royal family. 

Civilians were seen sifting through the rubble, pulling out mattresses, bricks and shrapnel.

Other targets included the camp of US-trained Yemeni special forces, which is controlled by generals loyal to Mr Saleh. 

by Our Foreign Desk