Saudi Strikes in Yemen Help Release Al-Qaeda Prisoners - Qatari Journalist

The Saudi-led multinational aerial campaign in Yemen is helping Al-Qaeda militants escape from prisons there, a Qatari journalist warned.

“Our warplanes strike Yemen's prisons to help release the Al-Qaeda prisoners and we are spending billions of dollars to bomb Yemeni children and women," Ahmad Abdelmalik Hamideddin wrote in an article on Wednesday.

Seven days into the Saudi Arabia-led aerial bombing campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen, the civilian death toll is mounting and hundreds of families are on the run, fleeing the nightly attacks that have shaken the already struggling country.

Operation Resolute Storm, as the Saudis have dubbed the campaign, aims to restore power to fugitive Yemeni president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

Despite Riyadh's claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi warplanes are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

The five Persian Gulf States — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait — and Egypt that are also assisted by Israel and backed by the US, declared war on Yemen in a joint statement issued Thursday.

US President Barack Obama authorized the provision of logistical and intelligence support to the military operations, National Security Council Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said late Wednesday night.

She added that while US forces were not taking direct military action in Yemen, Washington was establishing a Joint Planning Cell with Saudi Arabia to coordinate US military and intelligence support.