Comment on UN staff flee Yemen as Hadi urges decisive campaign

Sanaa (AFP) - UN staff were evacuated from Yemen's capital Saturday after a third night of Saudi-led air strikes, as President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi urged his Arab allies to bomb Iranian-backed rebels into submission.The deeply tribal and impoverished Arabian Peninsula state, on the front line of the US battle against Al-Qaeda, is the scene of the latest emerging proxy struggle between Middle East powers.An Arab coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-ruled Gulf monarchies, is battling to avoid having a pro-Iran regime on its doorstep, as Shiite Huthi rebels tighten the noose around Hadi's southern stronghold."I call for this operation to continue until this gang surrenders and withdraws from all locations it has occupied in every province," Hadi told a regional summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh."I say to Iran's puppet and whoever is with him, you are the one who destroyed Yemen with your political immaturity," Hadi said.Hadi later flew to Saudi Arabia with King Salman and did not plan to return to Yemen until "the situation settles", his Foreign Minister Riyadh Yassin said.Heavy strikes shook the rebel-held capital Sanaa for a third consecutive night until dawn on Saturday, residents said."It was an intense night of bombing and the windows shook," said a foreigner working for an international aid organisation in Sanaa.More than 200 staff from the UN, foreign embassies and other organisations were evacuated from Sanaa on Saturday by air, aid workers said.The air strikes apparently mainly targeted arms depots and other military facilities outside Sanaa, witnesses said.Saudi Arabia says more than 10 countries have joined the Arab coalition defending Hadi, who had arrived in Egypt on Friday to join allies at the weekend summit, a day after he surfaced in Riyadh.He went into hiding earlier in the week as rebel forces bore down on his refuge in the main southern city of Aden and a warplane attacked the presidential palace.At least 54 people have been killed and 187 wounded in three days of fighting between Shiite rebels and rival militia in Aden, a senior health official said.A series of heavy explosions rocked at an arms depot near the city on Saturday, causing an unknown number of casualties, witnesses said.The cause was not immediately clear. - 'Unprecedented' threats - The Arab summit, which opened Saturday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, is expected to back the offensive against the rebels and approve the creation of a joint military force to tackle extremists.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told fellow Arab leaders the region faced "unprecedented" threats.Saudi King Salman vowed that the military intervention his government is leading would continue until it brings "security" to the Yemeni people.But UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Arab leaders to "lay down clear guidelines to peacefully resolve the crisis in Yemen".The situation has become increasingly tense in Aden with rebel forces clashing with anti-Huthi militiamen in several areas, raising fears that Hadi's last bastion could fall.On Friday, at least eight people were killed in fighting around the city's international airport.Saudi warships evacuated dozens of foreign diplomats from Aden hours before the kingdom launched air strikes on the advancing rebels, state television reported on Saturday.The official SPA news agency said that 86 people had been pulled out on Wednesday.It was only announced after their arrival at a Saudi naval base in Jeddah on Saturday aboard two vessels.Saudi Arabia has vowed to do "whatever it takes" to prevent Hadi's overthrow, accusing Shiite Iran of backing the attempted takeover by the Huthi rebels, who have seized swathes of the country.But experts say the kingdom will be reluctant to send in ground troops for fear of getting bogged down in a protracted conflict.Gulf diplomatic officials said the air strikes could last up to six months.They said Saudi Arabia and its allies had decided to intervene after satellite imagery in late January showed the movement of Scud missiles north towards the Saudi border, with the capacity to strike a large part of the kingdom's territory. - US support - US President Barack Obama said Washington shared a "collective goal" with its regional ally to see stability in Yemen.Obama offered support to King Salman in a phone conversation as it emerged the US military had rescued two Saudi pilots forced to eject from their fighter jet over the sea off Yemen after a technical problem.Washington has pledged logistical and intelligence support for the Saudi-led campaign.A call for a ceasefire was issued by former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, suspected of being allied with the rebels.An army unit loyal to Saleh, along with Shiite militiamen, captured two towns in Abyan province to the east of Aden, military sources said. Join the conversation about this story »