ADEN (AFP) 18 March 2017 – Two senior Yemen rebels survived a Saudi-led coalition air raid on their convoy in the southwestern province of Taez Saturday that killed eight of their guards, military and medical sources said.
The attacked targeted a convoy carrying Abdu Al-Jundi, who was appointed as the governor of Taez by the Shiite Huthi rebels, and the military commander of the same region, Abu Ali al-Hakem, they said.
The eight guards were killed when two of vehicles in the convoy were hit in the raid near the town of Burj.
Jundi and Hakem were able to escape and seek shelter in a nearby market, a rebel military source said.
A medical worker in Burj said the “charred” bodies of the guards were taken to a local hospital.
Most of Taez province is controlled by Huthi forces, who are besieging forces allied with UN-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi holed up in the provincial capital of the same name.
In the western province of Hodeida, Saudi-led coalition aircraft carried out a series of strikes on a rebel training camp Saturday, leaving “dozens of dead and wounded,” a military official said.
The camp, 70 kilometres (45 miles) east of Hodeida city, is home to young recruits enlisted by the Huthis, who two weeks ago forced each district of Hodeida to send 30 young people there for conscription.
The UN says the conflict in Yemen has killed nearly 7,700 people and wounded more than 42,550 since the coalition intervened in March 2015 in support of Hadi.
