Saudi Arabia-led coalition shells Yemen on second day

SANAA: The Saudi Arabia led Arab coalition warplanes bombed rebel camps in Yemen on Friday in a second straight day of strikes killing 26 Houthi rebels.
Saudi Arabia vowed to do “whatever it takes” to prevent the fall of its ally President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, as the Huthi rebels grabbed power.At least 39 civilians have been killed so far in the Saudi-led Operation Decisive Storm against the Houthis, officials at the rebel-controlled health ministry in the capital said.
Twelve of the victims died when surrounding residential areas were hit in a raid against a military base north of the capital, the officials said.Three dawn strikes on Friday hit the presidential compound in south Sanaa which the rebels seized last month, witnesses said.
Warplanes also bombed a Houthi-controlled army brigade in Amran province, north of the capital, and arms depots in the northern rebel stronghold of Saada, residents said.Hadi, backed by the West and Gulf Arab states, arrived in Riyadh on Thursday with officials saying he was on his way to Egypt to take part in a two-day Arab League summit at the weekend.
It was the first confirmation of his whereabouts since the rebels began advancing this week on the main southern city of Aden, where the president had taken refuge since fleeing Sanaa last month.
Saudi Arabia says more than 10 countries, including four other Gulf monarchies, have joined the anti-Houthi coalition.As explosions rocked Sanaa, those families who have not already fled huddled in fear in their homes.
“Whenever a plane flies over our home and is met by anti-aircraft gunfire, my three children run to a corner and start screaming and crying,” said Mohammed al-Jabahi, 32. “We spent a night of non-stop terror and hysteria.”
An anti-aircraft missile wounded eight people, one of them seriously, when it exploded in a market in Sanaa on Friday, a day after it was fired by Houthi fighters, a security official said.The Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television said the kingdom had deployed 100 fighter jets to the operation, while the United Arab Emirates had committed 30, Kuwait 15 and Qatar 10. Bahrain said it had committed 12 fighters.
The White House voiced concern about “reports of Iranian flow of arms into Yemen”, while Riyadh lashed out at Tehran.“The Iranians are the ones who are meddling in the affairs of the Arab countries whether it’s in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iraq... in Yemen,” the kingdom’s ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, told Fox News.
“We have to deal with Iran’s aggression in the region. We’re dealing with their support of the Houthis and the Houthis’ attempt to take over in Yemen,” he added.Iran reacted furiously to the Saudi-led strikes, calling them a violation of Yemen’s national sovereignty.“Any military action against an independent country is wrong and will only result in a deepening crisis and more deaths among innocents,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said.