The Iranian-backed Houthi militia is using human shields and continues to violate a cease-fire in Yemen, a spokesman for the Arab coalition told a weekly press briefing in Riyadh on Monday.
Col. Turki Al-Maliki showed the media videos featuring examples of the violations.
Footage showed fighters threatening people and forcing them out of their homes, turning their properties into barracks and using them for military purposes.
The cease-fire, brokered in Stockholm between Yemen’s warring parties, went into effect on Dec. 13, 2018, in the strategic port city of Hodeidah.
They were the first direct talks in more than two years between representatives of Yemen’s internationally recognized government and the Iranian-aligned Houthis.
The besieged Houthi-held city is an entry point for 70 percent of foreign humanitarian aid into the country, according to the UN, which has described Hodeidah as a “lifeline” for Yemen’s war-ravaged population.
There have been 1,080 violations since the cease-fire came into effect, including the Houthis setting up military camps in different provinces, Al-Maliki said.
Coalition raids killed more than 270 Houthi fighters at a training site in Al- Mahwit on Jan. 23, he added.
He showed photographs of Iranian-made drones that had been destroyed by the coalition, which was targeting drone warehouses near Sanaa. The Royal Saudi Air Force had intercepted and destroyed anti-civilian drones in Abha and the militia were hiding in pipes, digging trenches to store weapons and planting mines that threatened global maritime and commercial lines in the southern Red Sea.
There have been 216 ballistic missiles launched by the Houthis toward Saudi Arabia between March 26, 2015, and Feb. 4, 2019, according to the coalition.
The total loss of Houthi militia sites, weapons and equipment from Jan. 21, 2019, to Feb. 4, 2019, was 335. The number of Houthi militia killed was 1,129, the briefing heard.
Source » arabnews