Hotel housing Yemen PM hit by rocket

Attacks targeting exiled Yemeni officials and Saudi-led troops fighting in the country’s civil war killed at least 15 people Tuesday in the port city of Aden, authorities said.

According to officials, 12 people, including several soldiers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), were killed in the attack.

Government officials and residents have both confirmed that there were casualties in the attack, even as it emerged that the country’s vice president was in the hotel at the time of the attack, but that he escaped unhurt. The government will hold an emergency meeting later on Tuesday to discuss the incident, he said.

The Qasr hotel has been used a seat of government since a Saudi-led coalition forced Houthi rebels from Aden, Yemen’s second city.

The coalition advance in Aden has helped the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi re-establish a foothold in the country after being forced into exile in March.

Witnesses said the hotel was on fire and that there are ambulances at the scene.

Smoke billows from al-Qasr hotel after it was hit by explosions in the western suburbs of Yemen’ …

The Shiite Muslim Houthis are aligned with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s bitter regional rival.

UAE troops have taken a leading role in driving the Houthis from Aden and Southern Yemen as they seek to restore the internationally recognised government of president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi.

“The USA and other states exporting weapons to any of the parties to the Yemen conflict have a responsibility to ensure that the arms transfers they authorise are not facilitating serious violations of international humanitarian law”, said Amnesty. In the biggest blow yet to the coalition, the Houthis killed over 60 Gulf Arab troops in a rocket attack in Marib, east of Sanaa, last month.

He said one of the rockets hit the hotel’s main entrance and that a third rocket fired at the building had missed and landed in the sea.

Local officials say he was evacuated by helicopter after the blasts.

Anwar Gargash, the Emirati minister of state for foreign affairs, said Tuesday’s attack was “the latest proof” that the Houthis and their allies are out to destroy Yemen.

They accused Hadi’s administration of failing to confront the Sunni militants of al-Qaeda, whose presence in the nation has grown. The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the rebels and their allies since March, fearful of Iranian influence spreading across the Arabian Peninsula.

The attacks come just days after Bahah warned the Shia Huthi rebels, who have been in control Sanaa since September, that there was no room for more “adventures”.