SAUDI Arabia announced on Tuesday (April 21) the end of a military air strike campaign against Houthi rebels and their allies in Yemen after nearly a month of air strikes that have worsened a humanitarian crisis in the country.
“Today, the leadership of the coalition has announced that it has ended the Decisive Storm Operation in accordance with a request by the Yemen government and his excellency the President (of Yemen), who felt that the main objectives of Decisive Storm were achieved,” said the Saudi-led coalition spokesman Ahmed Asseri.
“The coalition will continue in preventing the Houthi militias from moving or undertaking any operations inside Yemen.”
“The coalition will continue to perform their operation in matter of Renewal of Hope for Yemen, wishing that Yemen will become again stable and secure country for the region and for the Yemeni population who deserve that,” Asseri added.
The move suggests the campaign’s next phase is more political than military, especially after almost a month of bombing that destroyed or damaged heavy weaponry held by the Houthis’s allies in Yemen’s army, but that hostilities are not definitively over.
Iran, which has supported the fellow Shi’ite Houthis, welcomed the ceasefire, which followed months of factional fighting between the militant group and forces loyal to the government, which was driven out of the capital Sanaa.
In Aden, smoke billowed from an air strike in the city shortly before the Saudi announcement was made as fighting continued between local militias and Houthi forces.
“Thank God, and with the help of the youths of the southern resistance, we have managed to clear the line beyond the bridge, and God willing, we will now aim to march towards the airport and to control the airport from the Houthi militias,” said Ibrahim al-Saqaf, a southern secessionist militiamen fighting the Houthis said.
The Houthis and military units loyal to the powerful former president Ali Abdullah Saleh have taken swathes of territory and forced the current president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, into exile in Saudi Arabia. (Reuters)