Coalition Says Huthi-held Ports under Full Siege as Air Raid Kills Dozens at Displaced Camp

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An air strike killed dozens of people at a camp for displaced people in northwest Yemen on Monday, aid workers said, as Arab warplanes bombard rebels around the country.

The International Organization for Migration said at least 40 people had been killed and 200 wounded at the al-Mazrak camp in Hajja province where it has staff on the ground, revising an initial toll of 45 dead.

Medics at a hospital near the camp gave a similar toll.

IOM spokesman Joel Millman said 25 of the wounded were in severe condition.

"It was an air strike," said Pablo Marco of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has a presence at the hospital.

The al-Mazrak camp has since 2009 been housing Yemenis displaced by the conflict between northern Huthi rebels and the central government.

Marco said 500 new families had arrived at the camp in the past two days.

A Saudi-led Arab coalition has been pounding Shiite rebel positions in Yemen since early Thursday.

It has vowed to keep up the raids until the Iran-backed rebels abandon their insurrection against President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Riyadh.

Warplanes carried out a fifth night of strikes around the capital Sanaa until dawn on Monday, an AFP correspondent reported.

Coalition air strikes also targeted army bases north of the capital later in the day and residents reported heavy explosions.

At least 12 rebel troops were killed when coalition strikes hit their vehicles as they tried to enter the main southern city Aden from central Bayda province, a military official said.

The Huthis are backed as well by army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who stepped down in 2012 after a year of bloody protests in the deeply tribal country, where al-Qaida is active.

Officials said on Monday that the ex-strongman's son had been sacked as ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, which is part of the coalition.

Ahmed Ali Saleh was relieved of his duties at the demand of the UAE, according to a Gulf diplomatic official who did not want to be named.

The Huthis and allied renegade military units have overrun much of Yemen and prompted Hadi to flee what had been his last remaining refuge in Aden.

Dozens of people have been killed in several days of clashes in the city, and Hadi's aides have said he has no immediate plan to return there.

In the southern town of Daleh, a government official accused pro-Saleh troops of killing eight civilians, including two children, when they opened fire using tanks and artillery.

- Sea blockade -

Coalition spokesman Ahmed Assiri said the latest strikes targeted depots of ballistic missiles and were also aimed at halting the rebel advance on Aden.

The coalition had imposed a sea blockade and all movements in and out of Yemeni ports would be inspected, he said.

A Chinese naval flotilla, which had been carrying out anti-piracy escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters, was sent to Yemen on Sunday to evacuate Chinese nationals, Beijing said.

More than 500 Chinese citizens had been evacuated in two days.

The fighting in Yemen has stoked tensions between Sunni Arab nations and Shiite Iran.

Hadi has branded the Huthis the "puppet" of Tehran, and the prospect of an Iran-backed regime seizing the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state has alarmed its neighbors.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Western powers that any nuclear deal struck in talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne would be seen as a reward for Tehran's "aggression" in Yemen.

"One cannot understand that when forces supported by Iran continue to conquer more ground in Yemen, in Lausanne they are closing their eyes to this aggression," he said.

- War of words -

On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded that "Iran and the terrorist groups must withdraw" from Yemen.

He also accused Iran of meddling in other regional states, citing its role advising and coordinating Shiite militias in the fight against Islamic State group jihadists in Iraq.

Iran said it had asked Turkey's top diplomat in Tehran to explain Erdogan's "inappropriate" remarks.

Erdogan said on Monday he still planned to visit Iran despite a war of words with Tehran.

Pakistan renewed its support for Saudi Arabia and said it would send a high-level delegation to the kingdom on Tuesday to assess the situation.

"No decision has been made yet to send Pakistani troops to Saudi Arabia," Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said.

"There are no Pakistani troops, jets or ships in Saudi Arabia. If Saudi Arabia's as a state comes under threat we will surely protect it, but so far Saudi Arabia has no threat," Asif said.

Comments 30
Thumb janoubi 30 March 2015, 16:34

It is the revolutionary iranian guards ya southern. They landed in Houdaida more than a week ago. Their plan was to control all of Yemen before the announcement of the nuclear deal.

Thumb EagleDawn 30 March 2015, 16:38

mr.topol is the_roar:) Anyway, mowaten said it's war and in war civilians die when referring to Syria. In Syria he calls them collateral damage. In Yemen he calls them atrocities.

Thumb Mystic 30 March 2015, 16:45

The Ottoman empire thought they could beat the Yemenis. The British empire tried. Now the Saudis are trying, same faith they will meet.

Thumb EagleDawn 30 March 2015, 16:45

yes mowaten yes, lol.

Thumb justin 30 March 2015, 16:59

Thephoenix exposed the_roar and his friends on OTV orange room where they openly talked about disrupting naharnet forum. We clearly see example of their actions today and for the last month or so.

Thumb EagleDawn 30 March 2015, 17:01

@texas: don't forget mowaten said assad never used barrel bombs and it is only propaganda. The bombs were more like barrel shaped but not barrel bombs.

Thumb Mystic 30 March 2015, 17:01

Well, you can't live without looking at womens skirts. You are obsessed with mini-skirts it seems.

I thought you people, claimed to have respect for women.
Would be much easier if you walked around in Bikini all day anonymetexasusa, then the women would have something to laugh at.

Missing peace 30 March 2015, 17:27

funny how M8ers never mention the atrocities commited by the assad regime, rather they will always minimze it and say that the civilians killed are with nusra anyway...
pityful idiots they are....

Missing peace 30 March 2015, 21:16

euh.... bigjohn i am talking of the massacres he is doing NOW and that M8ers minimize and even deny! .... so easy on mixing everything to deflect....

Missing peace 30 March 2015, 21:42

plenty to criticize the assad dictatorship... they built their power on massacres and murders using terror .... they looted Lebanon, corrupted its politicians, erased lebanese villages, tortured lebanese, spread chaos and division to rule... the list is long and yet M8ers still praise that regime and support it....they suffer from stockholm syndrom i suppose

and assad is still killing his own citizens under indiscriminate bombings with no shame and no value for innoccent human lives...

Thumb janoubi 30 March 2015, 17:29

big_fake_bro
Unlike you I read many news reports. The Huthis and the revolutionary guards moved long range Scud missiles close to the Saudi border hours before the beginning of the airstrikes. They were the first to be taken out by the coalition. The huthis will no doubt fire missiles at saudi arabia sooner or later. It will be their biggest mistake. Just watch how this will unfold.

Thumb ex-fpm 30 March 2015, 17:44

The houthis were advancing on Aden way before the strikes began aided by Saleh's Republican guards and the Iranians.

Thumb _mowaten_ 30 March 2015, 17:55

distorting my words is see.. you must be out of lines to copy paste :)

Missing imagine_1979 30 March 2015, 17:55

Do u reqlly believe what u are writting or is it just some propaganda and spaming?
No really i'm asking u just to understand from where u got those infos cause even russia today don't go as far in stupidity...

Thumb EagleDawn 30 March 2015, 18:04

sure mowaten, here goes:

"_mowaten_
i dont think it's actual "barrels", more like barrel-shaped maybe.. and the "barrel bomb" name was coined by rebels for added mediatic effect"

Thumb ex-fpm 30 March 2015, 18:10

rofl rofl rofl @eagle!!!

Thumb marcus 30 March 2015, 18:19

that's actually pretty funny:)!

Thumb marcus 30 March 2015, 18:32

وزير الخارجية اليمنية يحمل الحوثيين مسؤولية الانفجار في معسكر النازحين.

Thumb marcus 30 March 2015, 18:33

The Syrian regime shelled Idlib with Chlorine gas today

Missing mohammad_ca 31 March 2015, 11:17

What are barrel bombs being dropped by ASSad and his Iranian and Hizbollah helpers on Syria?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_bomb?

Thumb _mowaten_ 30 March 2015, 18:46

I was talking about your first comment, saying I called Syrian casualties "collateral damage".

Regarding the so-called "barrel bombs" I still don't think they are actual barrels.

Thumb freedomarch 30 March 2015, 18:56

Not a good thing to hear. ARMED .... Armed ...with weapons ...
Houthis are hiding among civilians ..That is a fact.

Thumb popeye 30 March 2015, 18:56

absolute sub-zero credibility. Even when he is caught lying he invents a come back more pathetic than his original lie. well done @eagle for exposing this sectarian hypocrite!

Thumb liberty 30 March 2015, 19:21

فرقت مليشيات الحوثي مظاهرة مناوئة لهم في محافظة الحديدة غرب اليمن بالرصاص الحي، وأسفر ذلك عن مقتل متظاهر وجرح 15 آخرين كما قامت مليشيات الحوثي باعتقال العشرات من المتظاهرين - حسب شهود عيان. وتعرض "العربية" فيديو يوثق ما قامت به تلك الميليشيات.

http://www.alarabiya.net/ar/saudi-today/2015/03/30/فيديو-لإطلاق-الحوثيين-النار-على-مؤيدين-لـ-عاصفة-الحزم.html

Thumb liberty 30 March 2015, 19:56

texas:
everything this mouthpiece says is a lie. He works for the propaganda department of the terrorist party and he posts what they tell him to post. He is full of contradictions, first of which he claims to be an atheist. His nassrallah said atheists are more of a danger than the so called "takfiris". If Nassrallah gets hold of jim, he will be executed:)

Thumb liberty 30 March 2015, 19:57

him#jim*

Thumb justin 30 March 2015, 20:07

atheist yeah;-) that's why on every single article related to shiites or hezbollah he is there first defending and championing the cause. pffft

Thumb justin 30 March 2015, 20:14

30 minutes ago Hizbullah Minister Hussein al-Hajj Hassan: Salam's stance at the Arab Summit was not discussed in cabinet and it does not reflect the viewpoint of all Lebanese.

it does reflect the viewpoint of ALL lebanese except for those that consider themselves Iranian and followers of wilayat al faqih.

Thumb liberty 31 March 2015, 03:03

listen to the SSNP democrat talking!!!

Thumb liberty 31 March 2015, 03:06

by now mowaten of persia has reported above comments more than 200 times because he does not want his lies remaining on the record.