Yemen nears 'total collapse' as Middel East powers trade blame

Regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran traded accusations Tuesday over the escalating conflict in Yemen, which the UN rights chief warned was on the brink of "total collapse".
Explosions lit up the skies over the Yemeni capital overnight in the heaviest bombing raids yet of a six-day air war led by Riyadh against Shiite rebels.
The Huthi rebels and their ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, "decided with the support of Iran to destabilise Yemen," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said.
"We are not warmongers, but when they beat the drums of war we are ready," Saud told the Shura Council advisory body.
Tehran hit back, accusing Saudi Arabia of putting the entire Middle East in jeopardy.
"The fire of war in the region from any side... will drag the whole region to play with fire," Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said.
"We believe that the Saudi military attack against Yemen is a strategic mistake," he told reporters in Kuwait, calling for the air campaign to "stop immediately".
Iranian state media rejected as "utter lies" claims Tehran had sent arms to Yemen, but said it had dispatched non-military aid, including food and medicine, on Tuesday.
The coalition has vowed to keep up the strikes until the Huthi rebels end their uprising against President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Saudi Arabia.
Kuwait's Al-Watan newspaper launched a vitriolic attack against Tehran, describing the air strikes as "the biggest blow to Iran in decades".
The coalition campaign "raises hopes of a historic success for the Arabs and a rout of one of their worst enemies: the Persian state," added the daily.
The war of words pitting Shiite Iran against its Sunni Arab neighbours came as marathon nuclear talks between Tehran and world powers entered a crucial phase in Switzerland.
- 'Day of terror' -
Huge blasts were heard overnight in Sanaa when coalition forces hit a missile depot belonging to the renegade Republican Guard, which is loyal to Saleh.
"Sanaa lived through a day of terror due to the continuous bombing from early Monday until this morning," said Assem al-Sabri, a 28-year-old resident.
"We couldn't sleep from the sounds of explosions," he told AFP.
The missile depot blast rocked a southwestern district of Sanaa, and flames billowing from the site were seen across most of the city.
"The bombing was the heaviest I have ever heard in my life. The explosions lit up the skies of Sanaa," said another resident, 30-year-old Amr al-Amrani.
Early Tuesday, air strikes targeted two camps held by Huthi rebels and Republican Guard soldiers in the southern town of Daleh.
Columns of smoke rose from the area, witnesses said.
Coalition warplanes also raided a Republican Guard air base in the southwestern city of Taez, witnesses there said.
For the first time since the operation began, warplanes also bombed renegade troops in the Shiite-populated city of Dhammar, a Huthi stronghold south of Sanaa.
They also hit another arms depot north of the capital, according to witnesses.
- UN voices alarm -
The Red Cross said Tuesday a local aid worker had been shot dead in southern Yemen while evacuating wounded.
It said it could not fly in desperately needed aid due to a lack of security.
"The situation in Yemen is extremely alarming, with dozens of civilians killed over the past four days," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.
"The country seems to be on the verge of total collapse."
He denounced reported attacks by Huthi-linked fighters on three hospitals in the southern town of Daleh that caused an unknown number of casualties.
"I roundly condemn all attacks on hospitals and other medical facilities, which have a special protected status under international law," he said.
After an air strike killed dozens at a camp for displaced people in northwest Yemen on Monday, the two sides blamed each other.
"The coalition was targeted by militiamen from a residential area and coalition planes had to respond" to the fire, spokesman Ahmed Assiri told reporters in Riyadh.
"The Huthis are seeking to place their forces among the people and the coalition is doing everything it can to avoid civilian casualties."
The rebel-controlled health ministry condemned "the Saudi aggression on Yemen that left many innocent victims, children, women, and civilians".