Saudi child killed in Yemen missile attack
August 27, 2016, 7:37 pm

Thousands of children have been killed and many more displaced in the nearly two year conflict [Xinhua]

The four injured, including a nine-year-old brother of the killed child, were rushed to a local hospital a civil defense spokesperson said.

The Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran and fighting the Saudi-supported government in Yemen, have in recent days stepped up their cross-border rocket attacks.

The death toll since August 16 is now 11 killed due to these missile attacks.

A day earlier, a missile struck a power station in Najran.

Saturday’s attack comes two days after US Secretary of State John Kerry announced a new approach to ending the war in Yemen. Kerry believes that a unity government will help end hostilities.

In January 2015, the Houthis – who are Shia – seized the presidential palace in the capital Sanaa and forced then leader Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to resign. They have since sought to consolidate their hold on the country.

Hadi, who was placed under house arrest, eventually escaped and fled to Aden, the former capital of South Yemen.

He then declared Aden the new temporary capital of the entire country, but the Houthis pursued him there and captured that city as well.

The fall of Aden prompted the Saudis and some of their allies to mount military operations against the Houthis, who they accuse of acting as Iranian proxies.

The fight between the Houthis and the government, which was formed in November 2014, has created a security and political vacuum that has been used by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as well as the more militant Islamic State (ISIL), to grow their strength and influence.

Government forces recaptured the city of Aden in August 2015; some government officials soon returned there to administer rebuilding the war-battered country.

The Houthis still maintain control of Sanaa.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies