SANAA (Sputnik) — Despite Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen, ordinary life goes on in the country’s capital, Sanaa, a Sputnik correspondent reported Friday.
Saudi Arabia, alongside several other Arab states, launched a military offensive against Houthi rebels in Yemen earlier in the week. The attack came in response to a request by the country's ousted president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.
The military operation follows a recent string of terrorist attacks at mosques in Sanaa, in which more than 150 people were killed. The terrorist attacks shook the country, where different currents of Islam have long coexisted in relative harmony.
According to the information obtained by the Sputnik correspondent, after the Sanaa bombings the attendance of local mosques fell by 30 to 40 percent.
Now, the usually crowded, noisy and bustling streets of the Yemeni capital, home to some three million people, are unusually empty. Governmental agencies, however, continue their work.
The airstrikes also failed to interrupt the busy trade: shops and stores in Sanaa operate as normal. Shop owners have noted an increased demand for essential commodities. Yemen’s Ministry of Industry and Trade has announced that it has enough food in stock to last for six months in case of an emergency.
The Houthis, a Shiite insurgent group, have seized parts of the country, including the capital, and forced Yemen's elected government and President Hadi to resign.
According to recent media reports, the Saudi-led coalition could follow up its airstrikes with a ground operation in Yemen.
