Fault blamed for pilot ejections

A US Air Force F-15 fighter. Photo / AP

Saudi Arabia yesterday blamed a "technical fault" for forcing two of its pilots in an F-15 to eject over waters south of Yemen during a mission amid a bombing campaign targeting Shiite rebels in the country.

The official Saudi Press Agency reported the pilots were in "good health" after ejecting Thursday.

It said the US offered aid to rescue the airmen.

A US Defence Department official said an American helicopter flew from nearby Djibouti to the Gulf of Aden and rescued the airmen.

Yesterday Saudi warships evacuated dozens of foreign diplomats from Aden, state television reported.

"Saudi naval forces carried out Operation Tornado to evacuate dozens of diplomats, including Saudis, from Aden.," it said. "They arrived later in Jeddah aboard two Saudi naval vessels."

Saudi Arabia and fellow Sunni-led allies in the Gulf and the Middle East are bombing the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis. They view the Houthi takeover of Yemen as an attempt by Iran to establish a proxy on the kingdom's southern border.

Iran and the Houthis deny Tehran arms the rebel movement, though it says it provides diplomatic and humanitarian support.

Washington says the US is providing refuelling tankers and surveillance flights for the Saudi operations, and several US troops are working in the operations centre, but the US is not taking direct military action in the campaign.

At least 24 civilians died in Friday's strikes, taking the toll from two days to 45 civilians, the Houthi-run Interior Ministry said.

The Houthis' TV station showed footage from a market in Saada it said was struck by missiles, with images of charred bodies and wrecked vehicles.

Yemeni security officials said about 80 fighters from Houthi or Saleh forces had been killed in the strikes.

By Friday more than 40 per cent of Yemen's air defences were destroyed, said Yemeni Brigadier General Saleh al-Subaihi, who supports embattled Yemen President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who was forced to flee the country.

Also on Friday Egyptian military officials said Saudi and Egyptian warships deployed to Bab al-Mandab, the strategic strait off Yemen at the entrance of the Red Sea.

The strait gives the only access to Egypt's Suez Canal from the Arabian Sea and is a vital sea passage between Europe and Asia.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron has offered Britain's "firm political support" to Saudi Arabia over its air strikes on Houthi rebel camps in Yemen.

Cameron and Saudi Arabia's King Salman spoke for the first time since the monarch took the throne in January, the prime minister giving his clear backing to the action.

The Saudi-led coalition warplanes bombed Houthi camps in a second day of strikes as Hadi arrived in Egypt for talks with Arab allies.

"The prime minister emphasised the UK's firm political support for the Saudi action in Yemen, noting that it was right to do everything possible to deter Houthi aggression, to support President Hadi and his legitimate government," said a spokeswoman for Downing Street.

- AP, AAP