Airstrikes shake Yemen capital

Powerful explosions shook the Yemeni capital on Sunday, witnesses said, after the Saudi-led coalition vowed to press its air war following a Houthi militia missile strike that killed dozens of Gulf soldiers.

The witnesses said the coalition warplanes pounded positions of the Houthi militia and bases of splinter troops loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The raids hit military bases on the Nahdain and Fajj Attan hills and the neighbouring presidential complex, south of Sanaa, as well as the headquarters of the special forces.

Also targeted were Houthi positions in the northern neighbourhoods of Sufan and al-Nahda, forcing scores of residents to flee to other areas for safety, the witnesses said.

The air attacks came after the missile strike on Friday that hit an arms depot in Marib, east of Sanaa, killed 60 soldiers, including 45 Emiratis, 10 Saudis and five Bahrainis.

The Houthi militia said the attack was "revenge" for six months of deadly air raids, but the coalition vowed there would be no let-up in its air war.

The coalition launched the bombing campaign when President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia in March after the militiamen entered his last refuge, Yemen's second city Aden.

After loyalists recaptured the southern port in July, the coalition launched a ground operation that has seen the militiamen pushed back from five southern provinces. They still control Sanaa and much of the north and centre.