Saudi-led air strikes on Yemen continue

SANAA: The Saudi Arabia-led coalition on Saturday continued air strikes in Yemen against the Houthi rebels killing at least 21 people.
Meanwhile, an Arab League summit began in Egypt’s health resort of Sharm el Shaikh with the Yemen crisis high on the agenda.
In another incident, a series of explosions rocked an arms depot in Yemen’s second city of Aden on Saturday, killing at least 16 people as looters swarmed the facility, witnesses and an official said.
The blasts were heard across the city and pillars of smoke rose from the depot, where looting had broken out a day earlier.
The depot is at the foot of the Jabal Hadid mountain overlooking the port, and a large amount of weapons dating back to the Soviet era were stored in a cave there.
Troops guarding the depot abandoned their posts this week after their commanders fled as chaos tightened its grip on the war-torn country.
Houses shook, windows were shattered and several nearby buildings were destroyed in Saturday’s explosions, residents said.
“We have so far retrieved 16 charred bodies,” health department director Al-Kheder Lassouar said.
“We have information that there are more bodies inside that we were not able to reach” as smoke engulfed the area, he added.
Many people were inside or on Jabal Hadid when the explosions took place, witnesses said, reporting that several had died in the looting even before the blasts.
A resident, who was at the mountain earlier on Saturday before the explosions, said, “There were many dead bodies in the cave”.
“People entering to take weapons were killed by others who didn’t find what they were looking for,” he said.
Others reported seeing several people die of suffocation after inhaling toxic gases released from gunpowder stored inside the deep cave.
Several others were stabbed, residents say.
These reports could not be confirmed from official sources as fighting between local militias and rebels, under fire from a Saudi-led coalition elsewhere, killed 61 people in three days.
President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi took refuge in Aden after fleeing the rebel-held capital last month.