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News ID: 55514
Publish Date : 25 July 2018 - 21:20

Houthi Attack Damages Saudi Ship Off Yemen Coast

SANAA (Dispatches) – Yemen’s Houthi movement attacked a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea, causing damage, the Western-backed Arab coalition said Wednesday, after the Houthis reported targeting a Saudi warship in the area.
Arabic-language al-Masirah television network tweeted on Wednesday that Yemen’s naval force had targeted the Saudi military’s Dammam battleship.
Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the war in March 2015 in support of Yemen’s former Riyadh-friendly government and against the Houthis.
Yemeni forces regularly target positions inside Saudi Arabia and fire rockets at the coalition’s warships in retaliatory attacks against the Riyadh-led military operation on Yemen.
Last month, the Yemeni navy said it had managed to target a warship belonging to the Saudi-led coalition off the coast of Mukha port city in Ta’izz Province.
Meanwhile, the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has condemned recent airstrikes conducted by the Saudi-led coalition on Yemen’s water systems, warning that the destruction of the infrastructure could endanger more lives.
In a statement, Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF Regional Director in the Middle East and North Africa, said the water facility in the northwestern Sa’ada Province had come under attack three times in recent days.
Now, he said, over half of Sa’ada water system has been damaged and drinking water cut off to 10,500 Yemenis.
"UNICEF deplores in the strongest terms yet another attack on vital and lifesaving water systems in Yemen,” Cappelaere said. "Continuous attacks on water systems in Yemen are cutting off children and their families from water; increasing the likelihood of water-borne diseases spreading in the war-torn country.”
He also warned that "more lives - among them many children - will be lost” if the aerial assaults on Yemen’s basic services continue.
The UNICEF official further called on the parties to the Yemen conflict to stop all attacks on the country’s civilian infrastructure, including water systems and facilities, schools, hospitals and clinics.
"Attacks on civilian infrastructure including water systems are a violation of international humanitarian law,” he noted.
Several Western countries, the U.S. and the UK in particular, have been supplying Saudi Arabia with advanced weapons and military equipment.
 
Houthi soldiers in Yemen are seen in this file photo.