RIYADH: Yemen’s Houthi fighters fired mortar and rockets at a Saudi Arabian border town yesterday for the first time since a Saudi-led coalition began a military campaign against them in late March, the coalition’s spokesman said.
The projectiles struck a girls’ school and a hospital in Najran, which is only three km from Yemen’s border, Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri said, prompting authorities to close down all schools in the area. There were no immediate details of any casualties.
The attack followed Monday’s statement by Riyadh that it was considering a ceasefire to allow humanitarian relief and a call by President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, in exile in Saudi Arabia, for talks among Yemen’s political factions.
“They were mortars and Katyushas fired randomly at a residential district. Unfortunately they hit a girls’ school, they hit a hospital and they hit some houses,” Asseri said in a phone interview.
“We will not let this action pass without reaction. The air force and other components of the coalition are taking care of the source of the attack,” he added. He said more details on the number and type of projectiles fired, and whether they caused any injuries, would be released later.
The United Nations said yesterday the conflict in Yemen had taken at least 646 civilian lives since coalition airstrikes began on March 26, including 131 children and that more than 1,364 civilians had been injured.
Saudi Arabia says the campaign is aimed at restoring Hadi’s government after the Houthis, allied to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, seized the capital Sana’a in September, put the president under house arrest in January and then advanced south.
The Houthis say their campaign was aimed at fighting Al Qaeda militants and to combat corruption.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman of Saudi Arabia yesterday announced the establishment of a centre to coordinate humanitarian assistance for Yemen, and invited the United Nations to join in relief work for the Arab country.
Footage of the aftermath of the attacks shown on state television showed punctured pavements and damaged houses and cars in an unidentified residential district, as well as empty shell casings.
Saudi Al Jazirah newspaper said on its website that flights had been suspended to Najran airport, which is located some two to three km from the border
with Yemen.
Witnesses in Yemen had earlier said that Saudi forces had shelled the Yemeni side of the border after the Shia militia fired several rounds towards Saudi territories.
Meanwhile, French President Francois Hollande called yesterday for abolition of the death penalty, speaking in Saudi Arabia which this year has seen a large rise in the number of executions.
The Gulf kingdom has executed 78 locals and foreigners, compared with 87 during all of 2014.
Hollande, who attended the Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Riyadh yesterday, said: “France is campaigning across the world to abolish the death penalty.”
“The death penalty should be banned,” he told reporters after meeting GCC leaders including Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman of Saudi Arabia.
He said Paris’s position towards the death penalty is “not because one of our citizens could be a victim of an execution”, referring to Frenchman Serge Atlaoui who is on death row in Indonesia.
Hollande said he would make the call to ban executions “everywhere, and regardless who is involved. And I do it here too” from Riyadh.
Bombing obstructing aid
International relief agencies have warned that Saudi-led bombing of Yemen’s airports is obstructing aid deliveries aimed at easing a “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in the impoverished country.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said they were “extremely concerned about the severe damage caused by recent coalition attacks on airports in Sana’a” and the western region of Hodeida.
The strikes targetting the rebel-controlled airports are “obstructing delivery of much needed humanitarian assistance and movement of humanitarian personnel,” they said in a joint statement late Monday. UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen Johannes van der Klaauw also urged the Saudi-led coalition that has been pounding Iran-backed rebels in Yemen since March 26 to spare vital aid entry points.
“I strongly urge the coalition to stop targetting Sana’a international airport and to preserve this important lifeline — and all other airports and seaports — so that humanitarians can reach all those affected by the armed conflict in
Yemen,” he said.
The appeals came as a Yemenia passenger plane was damaged by overnight coalition air strikes on Sana’a airport, officials at the rebel-controlled facility said. An AFP photographer said missiles left at least four craters in the runway, while another unexploded rocket protruded from the surface.
AGENCIES
RIYADH: France is in talks to agree billions of euros worth of contracts in Saudi Arabia that could be completed quickly, ranging from defence to civil aviation, transport and energy, the French government said yesterday.
Speaking after President Francois Hollande held talks with key ministers of Saudi Arabia’s new cabinet, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the two countries had set up a joint committee to seal some 20 projects over the coming months.
“If these projects are finalised, then that will represent several dozen billions of euros,” he told reporters, adding the first deals should be realised “quickly.”
“We feel there is the desire by the new team to go quickly in its choices.”
Declining to give specific company details, he said talks in the defence sector were at an advanced stage. He confirmed that some of those deals involved naval projects. Hollande said some of the contracts could be confirmed as early as June, with more to be announced at a Franco-Saudi business forum in October.
“We want to act quickly,” he told a news conference in Riyadh. “We are here to set up a long-lasting strategic partnership.”
Hollande was in Riyadh, his fourth visit since becoming president, at the invitation of Saudi Arabia to attend a Gulf leaders summit. Over the last three years, France has been nurturing its links with Gulf states diplomatically and it is beginning to see commercial rewards.
France on Monday signed a $7bn contract with Qatar for Rafale fighter jets and has already won about $15bn of defence contracts in the region over the last year.
Fabius said other sectors included energy, where Total is interested in a solar energy deal, and a feasibility study for nuclear power. REUTERS
