SANAA
Warplanes from countries participating in a Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen's Shiite Houthi group on Thursday attacked a military command center and a military airport in the southern Shabwah province, witnesses have said.
Witnesses told The Anadolu Agency that the warplanes had targeted a concentration of Houthi militants in the vicinity of Shabwah's Ataq military airport.
They also struck the Ataq command center, eyewitnesses said.
They did not, however, say whether the strikes had resulted in casualties.
Houthi militants captured Ataq city earlier on Thursday, according to security sources.
The sources added that Houthi militants had taken the city with the support of troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Yemen's Hadi sacks 2 pro-Houthi military commanders
Embattled Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi on Thursday sacked two military commanders for allegedly sympathizing with the Shiite Houthi militant group.
"The decision also included the commanders' referral to trial for forcing the armed forces into battles that didn't serve the national interest," the presidency said in a statement.
Hadi has recently sacked several army commanders for their alleged support of the Shiite Houthi group, which overran capital Sanaa last September and has since sought to extend its influence to other provinces.
Since their takeover of Sanaa, the Houthi group has been hiring and firing military leaders.
Hadi, for his part, recently declared all decrees issued by the Houthis since their capture of Sanaa to be "null" and "illegitimate."
Hadi fled to Aden in February from Houthi-held Sanaa in hopes of reinstating his embattled presidency from the southern city.
However, the Gulf-backed president ended up fleeing to Saudi capital Riyadh late last month after Houthi militants struck his Aden residence.
450 India nationals evacuated from Yemen: Official
India has evacuated 450 of its nationals from crisis-hit Yemen, a Sanaa International Airport official said Thursday.
The official told The Anadolu Agency that three Air India planes had landed at the airport on Thursday to evacuate Indian nationals from the war-torn country.
Some 5,000 Indians had lived and worked in Yemen before a Saudi-led air campaign was launched two weeks ago against Yemen's Shiite Houthi group.
Non-official estimates put the number of Indian nationals still in Yemen at some 3,000.
Since March 25, Houthi positions in Yemen have been subject to frequent attack by warplanes from countries participating in the Saudi-led air campaign.
Fractious Yemen has remained in turmoil since last September, when the Houthis overran capital Sanaa, from which they have sought to extend their influence to other parts of the country.
Riyadh says the campaign is in response to appeals by embattled Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi – currently in Saudi Arabia – to "save the [Yemeni] people from the Houthi militias."
The Houthis, for their part, have decried the offensive, describing it as unwarranted "Saudi-American aggression" against Yemen.
Some Gulf States accuse Shiite Iran of supporting Yemen's Houthi insurgency.
