Arab coalition bombs Yemen rebels for fifth night

Sanaa: Arab coalition warplanes carried out a fifth straight night of air strikes against Shiite rebels near the Yemeni capital and elsewhere in the violence-wracked country, residents said today.
Fighter jets roared in the skies above Sanaa from 9 pm (1800 GMT) until around dawn, an AFP correspondent reported.
The Saudi-led coalition has vowed to keep up the raids until the rebels abandon their insurrection against President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Riyadh.
Positions held by the Iranian-backed Huthi rebels and soldiers of the renegade Republican Guard overlooking the presidential palace were believed to have been targeted overnight.
A Republican Guard camp in south Sanaa was also hit, witnesses said. The Huthis are backed by army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who stepped down in 2012 after a year of bloody protests. In the area around Marib, 140 kilometres east of Sanaa, radar facilities and surface-to-air missile batteries were targeted, local officials said.
In western Yemen, anti-aircraft defences were targeted in the port city of Hodeida, as well as several military positions farther south along the coast, residents said. (AFP)