Saudi-led coalition to allow aid flights to Yemen capital Sanaa

The Saudi-led coalition battling rebels in Yemen said it would allow humanitarian flights into Sanaa's international airport from Monday, after several days' closure due to renewed air strikes around the capital.

"Sanaa international airport will be reopened to United Nations flights and those of other agencies from Monday," a coalition statement said. 

The airport in the rebel-held capital was closed since Tuesday, when Saudi-led coalition jets resumed air strikes around Sanaa following the breakdown of UN-brokered peace talks between the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels.

The coalition said it received 12 flight requests from the UN and other groups, but warned that it needed to receive advanced notice of flight plans to Sanaa "in order to guarantee the security of airport staff". 

The statement made no reference to passenger flights ran by national carrier Yemenia, which until Tuesday had been the sole operator still serving Sanaa.

The coalition began bombing raids on Houthi rebels in March 2015 after the Yemeni rebels seized Sanaa and swathes of central and northern Yemen, forcing the government of President Abd Rabbuh Hadi to flee the capital.

Bonuses for Saudi soldiers

The Saudi government meanwhile announced all Saudi soldiers on the front lines of the war would get a month's bonus salary, official media said.

King Salman "has ordered paying a month's salary to active participants at the front lines" the Saudi Press Agency reported late Sunday.

"The order covers employees of the ministries of interior, defence, and the National Guard," it said, without giving the total cost of the bonus.

It comes as the kingdom battles a projected $87bn deficit in 2016 after oil revenues collapsed by more than half over the past two years.

In April, Saudi Arabia announced its wide-ranging Vision 2030 plan to diversify the oil-dependent economy.

Dozens of Saudi troops have died along the border or on the Yemeni battlefield since the kingdom launched coalition operations in Yemen.

Numerous Human Rights watchdogs have accused the Saudi campaign in Yemen for breaking international humanitarian law.

Human Rights Watch earlier this year released a damning report that showed Saudi using British and American made weapons to bomb factories and food warehouses in Yemen. 

The report claimed that the Saudi coalitions bombing campaign over Yemen and its indiscriminate targeting of civilian economic infrastructure was tantamount to IHL being broken. 

The Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) described the HRW report as "compelling evidence" that showed the Saudi's were breaking IHL and planned to use the report as evidence in a judicial review into UK weapons sales to Saudi Arabia. 

According to CAAT, the UK government has approved $3.6bn of weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, despite claims of grave human rights violations committed by coalition forces.