Saudi-led coalition ends Yemen campaign

RIYADH: A Saudi-led coalition declared an end to four weeks of air strikes in Yemen on Tuesday, saying the threat of Iran-backed rebels there had been removed and that operations were entering a political phase.
However, it left open the option of resuming strikes if the movement of the Houthi rebels warrant it, while adding that a naval blockade on the strategic country at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula will continue.
The announcement came as a US aircraft carrier was headed to the Arabian Sea, with Washington saying it was monitoring Iranian vessels suspected of carrying weapons to the rebels in violation of a UN embargo.
The coalition has “ended Operation Decisive Storm based on a request by the Yemeni government and President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi,” its spokesman, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri, said in Riyadh.
The operation, which began March 26, will continue until midnight.A coalition statement said the next step would aim to resume the political process in Yemen, delivering aid and “fighting terrorism” in the country, home to a deadly al-Qaeda franchise.
The Saudi Defence Ministry said the air strikes had managed “to successfully remove threats to Saudi Arabia’s security and that of neighbouring countries”.Meanwhile, Iran welcomed the Saudi-led coalition’s announcement to end air strikes in Yemen, saying it was a “step forward” to reaching a political settlement in the country.
“The establishment of a ceasefire and a stop to the killing of innocent and defenceless people is a step forward,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
Earlier on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman had ordered the National Guard, a ground force that exists apart from the army, to mobilise for operations against rebels in Yemen, the official SPA news agency said.It did not clarify how the National Guard would take part in the operation, which has seen a Saudi-led coalition launch air strikes against the rebels.
SPA quoted National Guard Minister Prince Miteb bin Abdullah as saying he was “honoured” by Salman´s “decision that National Guard forces take part” in the operation. He signalled the “complete readiness of all National Guard forces to carry out this role alongside other military bodies” in Saudi Arabia.
The force is to “take part in defending the security” of the kingdom, SPA reported, without elaborating.The guard is a trained army of 100,000 men, divided into infantry units, mechanised brigades, special units and military police.
Overnight, the coalition pressed the strikes against the rebels and their allies in the security forces, as the civilian death toll from a Monday raid on a missile depot in the capital rose to 38.
A further 532 people were wounded when the twin strikes sparked powerful explosions that flattened nearby houses, medics said.Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam denounced the strikes on the base as a “barbaric crime,” insisting the “aggression will only unite the Yemeni people”.
The coalition says it has carried out more than 2,000 strikes, gained complete control of Yemeni airspace and knocked out rebel infrastructure.In Aden, 21 people, including 13 civilians, were killed in fighting between pro-Hadi forces and rebels, sources said.
In the central province of Ibb, several civilians were killed in a strike targeting rebel air defence missiles in a residential area, witnesses said.Farther south in Shabwa province, tribal sources reported several deaths in raids and fighting.
In Riyadh, a Western diplomat said he thought it was a “good time for the Saudis to get out of this,” though the political objectives had not been achieved.“The Houthis are still there where they had been before,” said the diplomat, who asked not to be identified.