SANAA, Yemen — A Saudi-led coalition Monday launched a new round of airstrikes on Yemeni rebels and allied military units in the south of the country and on its Red Sea coast.
The coalition hit positions held by the mainly Shiite Houthi rebels and by military units loyal to former President Ali Abullah Saleh in the southern provinces of al-Dhale’ and Shabwa, residents in the areas told dpa.
The strikes come after residents Sunday said that Houthi reinforcements were heading to al-Dhale’, a stronghold of secessionist forces who have been fighting rebel advances into formerly independent southern Yemen.
The Saudi-led coalition launched an air campaign against the Houthis in late March after they advanced on the former southern capital Aden, forcing President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi to flee to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia fears that Houthi advances will bolster its regional rival Iran, whom it accuses of aiding the rebels. Iran has called for a negotiated settlement.
The Houthis and Saleh both have their power bases in northern Yemen, and have met fierce resistance in Aden and other parts of the south.
In the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, coalition airstrikes hit a historic fort used by the Houthis and a major military base occupied by army units loyal to Saleh, a local journalist said on condition of anonymity out of security concerns.
Meanwhile, Medecins sans Frontieres warned that in Houthi-held Haradh, near the Saudi border, most of the population had fled after “constant airstrikes and shelling.”
The town’s main hospital, serving a population of 150,000, had been abandoned, the international medical charity said.
The UN on Friday put the number of civilian deaths since airstrikes began at 551.
It said that more than 10,000 people fleeing Yemen by sea had arrived in Djibouti, Somaliland and Puntland.
