Yemeni prime minister escapes injury in hotel rocket attack

Hadi’s government has demanded the Houthis recognise its authority and withdraw from several cities, including Sanaa, which they seized past year.

While Prime Minister Khaled Bahah escaped unharmed in the attack on government headquarters at Al-Qasr Hotel, a few of his ministers were “lightly wounded”. He didn’t offer a few other insights about the assault.

The attack started at 6.30am when an armoured vehicle tried to storm the hotel, a member of the anti-Houthi resistance guarding main entrance to the building told The National.

The aim, pro-government officials said, is to open a new front line in the battle for Yemen’s third largest city of Taiz, northeast of the straight.

Two other attacks followed on locations used by troops from the UAE, which has the most overt presence among coalition forces inside Yemen.

Government officials said Bahah was not hurt in Tuesday morning’s attack, but the official Emirati news agency reported the death of 15 soldiers from the Arab coalition and its Yemeni allies. The Houthis have not commented on the attack. The discrepancy could not be reconciled.

The battered city of Taiz, which lies in a province of the same name largely controlled by the Houthis, has always been the site of civilian casualties as Saudi airstrikes as well as rebel mortar shells often hit homes.

The seizure of Aden was the first real victory for the Saudi-led coalition after a four-month bombing campaign and a largely unacknowledged deployment of ground troops.

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.

However, critics say that the Saudis intent on returning the exiled President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, is based on their own strategic goals, with Hadi accused by a few of being a puppet leader for Riyadh’s interests. That visit came a week after several members of his Cabinet returned to the city.

Anwar Gargash, UAE junior foreign minister, said on Twitter that the attack was further proof that the Houthis and Saleh were determined to destroy Yemen.

Witnesses had also initially said, according to the Associated Press, that the hotel was on fire after the attack and that ambulances had reached the site. “And it is close”.

The coalition suffered its worst losses to date when at least 52 Emirati soldiers were killed in a missile attack in Marib last month.

The nutrition situation, which already before the conflict was dire in Yemen, has meanwhile worsened significantly, he said, pointing out that 1.7mn children were at risk of malnutrition.

Six months of civil war and hundreds of coalition air strikes have killed more than 5,400 people in Yemen, according to the United Nations, and exacerbated widespread hunger and suffering.