Arab leaders agree to create unified force

Coalition airstrikes in Yemen destroy runway at major airport, kill 15 pro-Houthi soldiers

Arab leaders at a summit in Egypt announced the formation of a unified military force to counter growing security threats from Yemen to Libya, as regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Iran engage in sectarian proxy wars.

Arab representatives will meet over the next month to study the creation of the force and present their findings to defense ministers within four months, according to the resolution adopted by the leaders.

Coalition warplanes targeting Iran-backed Houthi rebels bombed the runway at the international airport in Sanaa, Yemen, and killed 15 rebel troops elsewhere in the city, military and aviation sources said on Sunday.

On the fourth night of raids against Shiite rebels and allied troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, Saudi-led strikes paralyzed the airport in the rebel-controlled capital.

"This was the first time they hit the runway" since the campaign began, an aviation source said, a day after UN staff members were evacuated from Sanaa. "The airport is completely out of service."

Witnesses reported hearing three loud explosions and seeing a large fire when the facility was hit around midnight.

Meanwhile, overnight airstrikes hit the headquarters of the rebel republican guard at the Al-Subaha base in Sanaa, killing 15 soldiers, a military official said.

A medic at a military hospital said 12 bodies and 18 wounded soldiers were received after the raid.

Airstrikes also targeted an air base in rebel-held Hudaida, in western Yemen, witnesses said, as part of an effort to destroy air defense capabilities.

Other raids targeted a base of the First Artillery Brigade in Saada, the northern stronghold of the Houthi rebels.

Saudi Arabia accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of hypocrisy on Sunday, telling an Arab summit that he should not express support for the Middle East while fueling instability by supporting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

In a rare move, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced that a letter from Putin would be read out to the gathering in Egypt, where Arab leaders discussed an array of regional crises, including conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Libya.

"We support the Arabs' aspirations for a prosperous future and for the resolution of all the problems the Arab world faces through peaceful means, without any external interference," Putin said in the letter.

Eighty-six foreign diplomats and Saudi nationals were shipped out of Aden to the Red Sea port of Jeddah, a Saudi military officer said, escaping the city where President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi had taken refuge until Thursday, when he left for Egypt to shore up Arab support for his crumbling authority.

Reuters - AFP

(China Daily 03/30/2015 page11)