Top Yemen brass injured in rebel drone strike dies

DUBAI: A high-ranking Yemeni intelligence official injured in a Huthi rebel drone attack on the country’s largest air base died of his wounds on Sunday, medical sources said.

Intelligence Brigadier General Saleh Tamah was wounded on Thursday in a strike on a military parade in Al-Anad air base, in government-held Lahij province some 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Yemen’s second city Aden.

Medical sources told AFP that Tamah underwent several surgeries in a hospital in Aden but died Sunday morning.At least seven loyalists — including Tamah — were killed and 11 injured in Thursday’s incident, which threatens to hamper United Nations-led peace efforts.

Among those injured were Yemen’s deputy chief of staff Saleh al-Zandani, senior army commander Fadel Hasan and Lahij governor Ahmad Abdullah al-Turki.Turki and Zandani were transported to Saudi Arabia for treatment, a Yemeni official told AFP.

The UN voiced alarm on Friday following the attack and urged “all parties to the conflict to exercise restraint and refrain from further escalation”. At talks in Sweden last month, the UN brokered several agreements between the Iran-aligned Huthi rebels and the Saudi-backed government seen as the best chance of ending nearly four years of devastating conflict.

The warring sides agreed on truce deals for the key rebel-held aid port of Hodeida and battleground third city Taez. The UN is working to schedule a new round of consultations, possibly in Kuwait, aimed at drafting a political framework.