Air strikes shake Sanaa

Sanaa

Air raids by Saudi-led coalition warplanes killed 15 people in Yemen's capital in one of the heaviest nights of bombardment in months, aid workers and witnesses said yesterday.

One rescuer said at least 10 civilians were among the dead.

"Ten members of the same family were killed in the Al Falihi neighbourhood, in Sanaa's old town," he said.

Residents said four houses were destroyed by a bomb and that 15 other buildings were damaged.

Witnesses said five Huthi rebels were killed in a raid on their position in the capital, which the Iran-backed Shia fighters seized last year.

Residents of Sanaa's Al Hassaba neighbourhood said coalition jets conducted several sorties overnight, targeting an interior ministry building and a police station.

A residence of ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose forces have allied with the Huthis, was also bombed, as well as an office of his political party, according to residents. 

In central Zubeiri Street, an army communications office was hit for the first time by the coalition.

The building has been used by the pro-Huthi Saba news agency, as well as other media outlets, according to a rebel spokesman.

In the southern neighbourhood of Hadda, the Omani ambassador's residence was hit during an air strike targeting the nearby home of a Huthi official, residents said.

A spokesman from Oman's foreign ministry condemned the attack, the ONA news agency reported, without saying whether the envoy was at home at the time.

"Oman calls on the United Nations to take all measures to end the war in Yemen," the spokesman said.

Oman has offered to host planned UN-mediated peace talks between the government and rebels.

The government earlier this week said it would not attend talks unless the rebels first accept a UN Security Council resolution demanding their withdrawal from territory they have captured.