Monday 11 May 2015

BREAKING NEWS!! Yemen conflict: Moroccan warplane 'goes missing'

Smoke rises from a house belonging to Yemen's ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa (10 May 2015)A Moroccan warplane taking part in the Saudi-led coalition campaign targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen has gone missing, the North African state says.

A Moroccan Royal Armed Forces statement said the F-16, one of six stationed in the UAE, vanished on Sunday evening.
The pilot of a second F-16 in the same squadron did not see if the pilot of the missing jet had ejected, it added.
On Monday, coalition aircraft continued to bomb rebel positions ahead of the start of a proposed five-day ceasefire.
Saudi Arabia says its offer of a pause in hostilities from 23:00 (20:00 GMT) on Tuesday to allow humanitarian aid deliveries is conditional on the Houthis reciprocating.
Yemenis who fled the fighting in southern city of Aden take refuge in the third city of Taiz (9 May 2015)Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced by the conflict in Yemen
The rebels have agreed to the truce, but say they will "respond" to any violations.

Investigation

The 10-nation coalition launched air strikes against the Houthis and allied army units loyal to Yemen's ousted former president Ali Abdullah Saleh on 26 March with the aim of restoring the government of exiled President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.
Morocco backed the intervention from the start and put at the coalition's disposal a squadron of F-16s already stationed in the UAE as part of the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria
Anti-Houthi militiamen in Aden (10 May 2015)Militiamen allied to the exiled president have been unable to halt the rebel advance
At around 18:00 (15:00 GMT) on Sunday, one of the F-16s went missing while flying over Yemen, a statement carried by the Moroccan state news agency said.
An investigation into the aircraft's disappearance was under way, it added.
Yemen's state news agency Saba, which is controlled by the Houthis, did not report on the plane's disappearance, nor was there any mention in other Yemeni media.
Map showing Houthi and al-Qaeda areas in Yemen (22 April 2015)Overnight, the Houthis' northern heartland of Saada was bombed for the third consecutive day, after the coalition declared the whole province a military target and an estimated 70,000 residents fled, the AFP news agency said.
Rebels in the third city of Taiz and the eastern province of Marib were also reportedly attacked.
Houthi fighters also traded heavy artillery and rocket fire with Saudi troops along Saudi Arabia's border with the provinces of Saada and Hajjah, residents told the Reuters news agency.
There were no immediate reports of casualties. But the UN says more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since 19 March.
Analysts say the coalition appears to be trying to inflict as much damage as possible on the Houthis and their allies before the humanitarian ceasefire starts.
On Sunday, a group of 17 international aid agencies warned that five days was not sufficient to restock food, medicine and fuel supplies in a country under blockade.
"Even if a five-day ceasefire goes ahead, the overwhelming scale of humanitarian needs on the ground means that it will make little difference to the lives of millions of increasingly desperate people," said Hanibal Abiy Worku of Norwegian Refugee Council Yemen.

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