Saudis, Allies Pound Yemeni Capital of Sanaa in Weekend Strikes

Officials say attacks targeted 'secret underground tunnels'

Over the weekend, Saudi Arabia and its allies carried out a flurry of airstrikes against the Yemeni capital city of Sanaa, with residents reporting several large explosions in parts of the city.

Results weren’t immediately clear, but officials now say that they attacked “secret underground tunnels” beneath the Sanaa presidential palace, where they believe ballistic missiles were stored. They also hit other military targets.

The coalition prefaced these attacks by warning Yemenis to avoid “legitimate military targets” in Sanaa, a warning that probably didn’t do much good if they were attacking underground sites that the public didn’t know anything about.

That’s been the case in a lot of recent strikes, as in addition to these tunnels, Saudi strikes targeted a plastics factory which had no apparent military significance. Officials later speculated that this was a “drone lab.”

The Houthis and the Saudis have been trading tit-for-tat strikes across the border in recent weeks, and while the Saudis kill scores of people daily in airstrikes, this has also led to an increase in strikes around Sanaa.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.