The echo of the Yemeni war resounded again in Abu Dhabi in the early hours of Monday, January 24, when air defense missile launches and explosions lit up the dawn in the emirate’s capital. In a statement, the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Defense said it intercepted two ballistic missiles targeting the city, attributing the attack to Yemeni Houthi rebels. “This attack did not cause any casualties, and the remains of the intercepted and destroyed ballistic missiles fell in different places in the emirate of Abu Dhabi”, the ministry said in a statement.
This is the second attack on the United Arab Emirates carried out by the Houthis in a week. Yemeni rebels had already claimed responsibility for a drone raid on January 17 that hit oil installations and Abu Dhabi airport and killed three people. In retaliation, the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia, in which the United Arab Emirates participate, has increased air strikes against Yemeni territory. These raids are among the deadliest since the Gulf monarchies entered the war in 2015 against insurgents close to Iran.
On Friday, a bombardment targeting a prison in the town of Saada, stronghold of Houthi rebels, in northern Yemen, left more than 100 dead, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. If a coalition statement qualified reports that the prison had been hit “unfounded”, the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which visited the site, confirms that the building, which served as a detention center for migrant workers transiting through Yemen, was devastated.
“This is the latest in a long series of unjustifiable Saudi-led coalition airstrikes on places including schools, hospitals, markets, wedding parties and prisons., denounced Saturday Ahmed Mahat, head of mission of MSF in Yemen. In recent days, we have seen a worrying escalation in the war in Yemen, with numerous airstrikes on Sanaa throughout the week, which continued this morning. »
“We are entitled to six or seven strikes per night”
An employee of the humanitarian NGO Care and a resident of Hajjah, a city northwest of Sanaa, Bushra Al-Dukhainah confirms the intensity of the bombardments:
“Since the beginning of the escalation, we are entitled to six or seven strikes per night. My son is terrified. One of his friends died in an air raid at the start of the war and since then each new explosion has rekindled his trauma, plunging him into a panic attack. He spends his time asking me when this is all going to end and I don’t know what to tell him. With each new year, we hope that the situation will improve and in fact, it only gets worse. »
You have 25.62% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.
