GCC condemns Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia as Yemen fighting intensifies

MANAMA — The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Sunday condemned repeated attacks by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi fighters on Saudi Arabia and pledged support for the kingdom, Al Jazeera reported. Fighting in Yemen has intensified.

According to Al Jazeera, the six-member bloc issued its statement after a meeting of foreign ministers in Manama, Bahrain. The members are Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The statement said an attack on any member affected all six, Al Jazeera reported. It invoked a joint defence agreement and backed Saudi Arabia's right to protect itself.

Drones and diplomatic moves

Al Jazeera said the Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthis reported shooting down two drones near Riyadh and in the Eastern Province early on Sunday. According to the same report, the coalition said it had intercepted another drone near the capital hours earlier. It did not say who launched it.

The Gulf ministers accused the Houthis of carrying out deadly strikes on civilian airports and vital facilities, Al Jazeera reported. They called for tighter enforcement of a United Nations arms embargo on the group. They also urged countries to formally designate it "a terrorist organisation", the outlet said.

The ministers welcomed an October 15 statement from the UN Security Council. According to Al Jazeera, that statement condemned Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia and threats to Red Sea shipping.

Yemen's internationally recognised government separately appealed to the Security Council to act against Houthi attacks on homes and state facilities, Al Jazeera said. Its letters went to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and to Aglaia Balta, the council's president for October. They cited an attack on the presidential palace in Aden, where the government is temporarily based, according to the report.

Also on Sunday, UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan met Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman Al Saud in Abu Dhabi to discuss regional security, Al Jazeera reported, citing the UAE state news agency WAM.

Fighting on the ground

Al Jazeera reported that Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces are pressing offensives on several fronts. The Yemeni military said the Houthis fired missiles towards the central city of Marib on Sunday. Government troops reported gains in Taiz, further south.

Government-aligned commanders said eight soldiers died in fighting in Lahij province on Saturday, according to Al Jazeera. Government forces also claimed to have killed 12 Houthi fighters in southern Taiz. Al Jazeera said those figures could not be independently confirmed.

The International Organization for Migration says the fighting has uprooted more than 233,000 people, according to Al Jazeera. About 121,000 of them are in Taiz province, where supply routes have been disrupted.

Al Jazeera's Hadeel al-Yamani, reporting from Taiz, said cooking gas was unavailable and food stocks were dwindling. She said Houthi forces had blocked supplies through the city's western entrance. A local office tracking the siege said food prices had risen fivefold, according to the report.

The World Health Organization warned that Taiz's 12 hospitals had fuel for four more days and had run out of surgical supplies, Al Jazeera reported. Oxygen and medicines were also critically scarce, and the city was dealing with a cholera outbreak, it said.

Background

According to Al Jazeera, the latest phase of the war followed Houthi gains along Yemen's Red Sea coast last month. Government forces then launched a counteroffensive to recapture territory from the Houthis, who seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014.