The coalition advised civilians to stay away from the targeted areas.
The strikes follow drone attacks by the Houthis against the southern Saudi city of Abha over the weekend, launched from their bases in the north near the Saudi border. The Abha airport serves as one of the primary bases for Royal Saudi Air Force attacks against the Shiite Yemeni militia.
The news comes amid an impasse in the coalition over control over the southern port of Aden that has blocked attempts by Riyadh to organize a summit for a new Sunni Yemeni coalition government. The separatist Southern Transitional Council, a militia backed by the United Arab Emirates, has refused to surrender the port city to Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who fled the country for Riyadh in 2015 after being ousted by the Houthis.
According to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), at least 7,072 civilians were killed and 11,205 wounded by US-made weapons between the war's inception in March 2015 and March 2019. However, estimates vary wildly: for example, the Associated Press has estimated that the conflict as a whole has claimed the lives of at least 57,538 people since January 2016. The Saudi coalition's siege of the country, cutting off access to food and medicine, has created what the Food Security Information Network has called "the world's gravest food insecurity crisis," with 53% of the country, or 16 million people, "in urgent need of food and livelihood assistance," according to its 2019 report.
