Photo taken on Nov. 5, 2017 shows the al-Sabeen square after airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition war-planes in Sanaa, Yemen. Saudi-led coalition warplanes waged a series of airstrikes on military targets in the Yemeni capital Sanaa overnight and early Sunday morning, just few hours after Yemen's Houthi rebels fired ballistic missile towards Saudi capital Riyadh and hit its main airport. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed)
SANAA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Saudi-led coalition warplanes waged a series of airstrikes on military targets in the Yemeni capital Sanaa overnight and early Sunday morning, just few hours after Yemen's Houthi rebels fired ballistic missile towards Saudi capital Riyadh and hit its main airport.
The warplanes hit several military targets inside Sanaa, including the platform of al-Sabeen square, the nearby presidential palace, the national security headquarters, the interior ministry and the air-defence bases in the capital's mountains of Attan and Noqom, according to residents and Houthi-run Saba news agency.
Saba reported over 15 airstrikes on the targets inside Sanaa and an approximate number of airstrikes on military targets on the outskirts of Sanaa and around it.
These targets have been hit by the coalition fighter jets for hundreds of times since the beginning of the war two and a half years ago.
Resident houses and properties nearby the targeted places in Sanaa were slightly damaged. There were no reported casualties from the airstrikes overnight and early Sunday morning.
The coalition warplanes kept flying over the Yemeni capital for long hours following the rebels' ballistic missile that hit north of King Khalid international airport north of Riyadh.
On Saturday night, the Shiite Houthi rebels backed by rocketry forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh fired the long-range ballistic missile towards Riyadh at around 20:20 p.m. local time (1700 GMT).
Residents of Riyadh reported hearing loud bang near King Khalid international airport.
The Saudi government said the missile fell and exploded north of the airport but caused no casualties, according to Saudi local Al Arabiya satellite TV, adding that the air traffic was not disturbed.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said in his twitter account that the missile came in retaliation to Saudi air attack last Wednesday on a hotel and popular marketplace in the Yemeni northern province of Saada, killing 29 civilians and injuring other two dozens, although the coalition said the hotel and marketplace were military targets because there were gatherings of Houthi fighters there.
Houthi rebel's Saturday missile attack was the latest in a series of ballistic missile attacks by Houthis from Yemen towards Saudi cities since Saudi intervened in the Yemeni war more than two years ago.
The Houthi rebels last week fired another ballistic missile towards a Saudi military base in the Saudi border province of Najran and Saudi authorities said the missile hit a residential complex in Beir Salaries area.
Saudi led a military coalition of 10 countries and intervened in Yemen's civil war in March 2015 to back the internationally recognized government of exiled President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi against Iranian-allied Shiite Houthis who stormed the capital Sanaa and controlled much of the country's north.
The coalition has yet defeated the Yemeni rebels despite thousands of Saudi-led airstrikes against Houthis.
The war has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and displaced more than 3 million others, according to UN agencies.
The war has led Yemen to the world's most humanitarian catastrophe with less than one million Yemenis hit by a deadly cholera outbreak and pushed the poor Arab country into the brink of mass famine.
