he ♪ they are calling it the final push. iraqi countries edge closer to taking tikrit back from isil. nigerians get another chance to have their say. >> the latest transformation

will meet those who say the city's ancient history is being lost. the arab league says airstrikes will continue against houthis in generally before they withdraw from the capital, sanaa. the saudi-led coalition has been bombing for four days now. in the past days we have had reports from sada in the north of the country. an airstrike in the port city of hudaydah. the houthis are still on the move though. they are reported to be marching towards the southern city of aden. in chabwa province, they have been battling sunni tribes and at least 40 houthi's fighters said to have been killed. more from hasham barahawa. >> airstrikes hit including in

the capital city sanaa. jets have bombed ammunition at those airports and long-range rocket launchers in sanaa, sada, ib and hadadah. this is an aftermath. the destroyed helicopters, fighter jets and a fuel facility. the saudis have also deployed thousands of soldiers along the border they share with yemen. >> the houthis are a group of malitias that stage add coup. they have expanded because of the backing of former president and the iranians. >> saudi-led airstrikes seem to be weakening houthi fighters who have started to retreat from the south according to local sources. sunni tribesmen are on the move to recapture areas they lost in the last few weeks.

these are houthi fighters killed in an ambush while in the southern city of lahague. the summit in egypt has been dominated by the deteriorating security situation. the saudis are and their allies say the airstrikes will continue until the houthis disband their malitias. they also insist that president abdullah sahadi who has fled the country is yemen's legitimate leader. yemen was on the verge of collapse which prompted a response from the international community. the move after all other means to achieve a peaceful solution that includes halting the coup and restoring legitimacy. it will continue until the houthi hand over their weapons. >> hadi has sacked the general

as the ambassador to the united arab emirates. this this is after saudi media reports he was in rihad. the reports suggest the former yemeni president is willing to turn against the houthis if international sanctions against accused of coludding with the iranians to destabilize the region. al jazeera. >> aeshingsz's senior political analyst is with us live from london. what are the chances of this saudi-led coalition achieving it's mission of getting the houthis out of sanaa? >> this will be a very very difficult challenge. one thing is to bomb bard those

positions from air to destroy the heavy armory and to attack the military basis. when it comes to urban populated areas like sanaa, like aden, and as we have seen in other places like syria, iraq and lebanon and so on, moving forces on the ground is very difficult, getting the houthis out of places like sanaa is going to be a challenge. and i suspect that the saudis and their allies are hoping that enough strategic pressure will be -- will be put on the houthis and their patrons in tehran in order to go back to the negotiations table instead of going in to a full-fledged civil war in yemen. >> this operation, though is just the kind of thing, isn't it that the arab league is looking at when it says its going to set up this unity force. >> well, you know one thing

that different soldiers from different ones together another thing is to invest in the operational and logistical coordination necessary for different armies to join in one and the same operation. now, even the nato allies and they are the most sophisticated armies in the human history. when they deployed into afghanistan, which has a similar terrain to yemen, we have seen the difficulty. it's been 14 years and counting. so one thing to make slogans or to plan this kind of thing. another thing for the egyptians and saudis and others to go into yemen and try to find the houthis, try to find them in their own lands, in their own hills and mountains and then their own cities. that's going to be a totally different change all together. even if they win at the end of the day, it will be like the

operations succeeded but the patient dies. this will lead to the destruction of yemen. once again, they are going to have to need to find a solution short of a land invasion of the country. >> i mean yemen is not the only region. the region's trouble spot. is it? look at libya. look at syria. possibly iraq and lebanon and surely, those leaders have their eyes on those trouble spots, too. >> that's very true. i suspect when the egyptian president suggested this arab joint force, i think actually he has libya in mind. but we have seen that this kind of intervention in syria and iraq has very limited chance of succeeding in any short, you know, amount of time. so, you know one thing is to wish for the kind of joint military force. but, also a wishful thinking to think that you could just

control or contain or dominate countries like yemen and libya by simply announcing a 40,000, you know, joint force. so there were two kinds of voices adrian coming from the summit, the kind that said we need dialogue go back to the dye log in yemen and in libya. and there are others who were speaking of the dialogue continued to emphasize the military solutions. i am afraid while there are true strategic and military challenge challenges facing the arab world but i think at least in places where a dialogue is needed like in libya, to succeed and to bring the people back together, certainly, it's worthy of the diplomatic investment. >> read more of his thoughts at aljazeera.com. always good to talk to you. that's our senior political analyst in london. just to give you a heads-up, we are expecting any moment now another briefing from the coalition spokesman in ryad on

today's saudi-led coalition's operations. when that begins we will bring it to you live here on al jazeera. in the meantime let's examine the alliance of countries battling the houthis in yemen. the jordanian government says its partitioncipation is designed to support the legitimate government. tcu report from armon. nanny agree. >> yemen is nowhere close to jordan's borders but that hasn't stopped him from leading the soud i-led war. sunni muslims doesn't target shia groups. the sentiment is strong. >> houthis have nothing to do with islam. they follow iran and we are

against iran destroying any arab country. we don't want houthis to expand. we are sunnis and houthis are killing sunnis. >> few people here need convincing of jordan's military role unlike the role in the international coalition against the islamic state of iraq in. the levant. it wasn't until they burned a pilot alive they asked for them to be wiped out. >> they feel it could happen to any arab country. most jordanians were not surprised to hear about their country's decision to join the anti-houthi alliance. many believe jordan's security is inseparable from that of 10ud e arabia did's. what some don't understand is their government's recent attempt to improve relations with iran. >> earlier this month, jordan's foreign minister visited the visit was the first in eight

years. jordanian jets some described that as the contradictory foreign policy. >> maybe jordan wanted to be early in mending the relationship with iran and which they -- jordan thinks it would allow it to play a greater role in the region. >> some analysts argue that jordan is part of the arab against the houthis as a matter of obligation. but that it's more serious about fighting isil in neighboring iraq and syria. jordan fears the conflict could overshadow the war against isil. al jazeera aman. >> let's get a view from aman.

retired jordanian air force general abunoa. thank you for being with us. is jordan part of this coalition by obligation? >> indeed indeed. jordan sent a very serious message, a political message to iran regardless of visiting our foreign minister visiting tehran. i don't see it as a very significant vicinity. it's a good answer for it. you know to stop them sphere of influence in the area. this is jordan policy. it had nothing to do with any other factors except she doesn't want to see iran extend all over the region or taking the leadership of the region in

actual fact relying on the nuclear issue with them. so jordan i think, did join the coalition just because she feels that she is threatened also iran is threatening a fact indirectly the whole region by de destabilizing the whole region or touching the arab security in general. >> you will forgive me sir if i interrupt you midway through your next answer because we are waiting for this press conference to begin in ryad. but jordanians' participation in this unified arab force. hang on a second. not going to get to put the question to you. we are going to ryad now. let's listen in to the briefing given once again by brigadier general asiri on the saudi-led

coalitions. >> according to the timetable, the targets we have talked about previously still continue. destruction of the bullallistic missiles as you are aware, this kind of missile is mobile. therefore, there is considerable effort of the coalition command to locate and confirm their locations. as i mentioned, also the houthi will not hez taste to put these missiles and equipment in homes and residential areas. >> gives our colleagues in intelligence difficulty in confirming the targets. the coalition leadership has been targeting the air defense capabilities that are being controlled by houthi malissues

malissueses. today, we are continuing and here, i would like to confirm that the houthi organizations has made to turn yemen in to a huge stock pile of weapons and ammunition and all -- all of the cities and provinces of the republic especially after the coup de tete against the government and they had control of ports and airports and everyone knows there is an agreement we have signed to under the regional countries and the trips is almost now 14 trips a week. and this is a large number. therefore, result in a large quantity of weapons and ammunition stored in various locations within yemen and there

is considerable effort to locate these stores and destroy them. of course the movement of the houthi forces or the houthi malitias are being targeted as i mentioned in last night's briefing that the air force, now the coalition, have full control of the ground and there is direct targeting of all of the houthi militia movements and i wish to confirm that there will be no more -- there will no longer be any safe place in the coming days for their gathering. the planes are working in the yemen airspace. any movement will be targeted. any movement by the houthi

malitias and the southern provinces towards the capital aden which is currently the military government are targeted around the clock. the planes are flying in sortees around the clock near aden and, therefore, will target other movements that surround the city and towards it. of course, supply and logistics for the houthi malitias they seek to store as much as possible of stores for their operations so the air forces are targeting all convoys that may be carrying supplies and logistics, whether it's fuel oram in addition or whatever we are also targeting anyhow howe

congregations south of at a time southern borders of the kingdom or north of the yemeni lands. of course, the land forces have conducted operation today which we will touch upon in this briefing. can i have the next slide? now, as i mentioned, the weapons -- the stores especially missiles, you will observe now we are targeting one of the missile stores. as you can see, the size of the building, you can imagine the quantity of store. you can see the size of explosion and then the following explosion of the ammunition in

the store of course as you mentioned earlier on day 1, the houthi malitias have taken over a large part of equipment, a huge quantities of equipment whether it's weapons or tanks or vehicles oram in addition and they were either moved or used in this location. if you observe this grouping of

vehicles that used to belong to the yemeni army was taken over by the houthi and the last four hours, we have targeted them. also recon recon i sans it became evident they moved some planes to one of the bases outside of sanaa. and it has been targeted in the last 24 hours and was completely

destroyed. as you can see from this video as far as land forces operations, the saudi royal forces in the southern region and were the houthi malitias have moved to their opposite. we have continuous artillery bombardment where they have their vehicles south -- south of the kingdom borders. also, the army aviation apache helicopters have targeted a camp containing a command center and

vehicles and machinery that the houthi militia tried to push it or move it towards the sectors of the southern area. they were completely destroyed in less than four hours. didn't care what should be noted that the coalition forces now after it has controlled fully controlled the airspace and has been dealing with the houthi militias movement on the ground is extending considerable effort to identify targets and confirm them and thusly attack them. what we are confirming here is because we are cautious to do safety of the yemeni citizens so they are not clad recall damage for the houthi militias storing

weapons in villages and residents of yemeni citizens. also some of the parameters that delay the military action is we do not want to target infrastructure of the yemeni people whether it's roads or buildings or whatever else the yemeni people, the houthis are trying to use. and, therefore, there is considerable accuracy to identify targets so we don't have any collateral damage. the operations and the next days will increase pressure on the houthi militias by targeting them whether it's individual or group movement. there will no longer be any safe place in yemen for the houthi militias. the coalition forces will operate around the clock to achieve their goals as soon as

possible. today, we have suspended operations over the area of the airport for two or three hours to support the pakistanis who came through and they had evacuated almost 500 pakistani citizens by using pakistani planes after providing them with a safe corridor and allowing them to evacuate the citizens, and i believe now they have arrived at their country safely. the briefing now is concluded. i am open to questions. please go ahead. >> we know that the yemeni army

has scud missiles. these missiles are they still in the hands of yemeni army loyal to the government or at the houthi militias? we know that the houthi who are the cause of this disaster is among the coalition goal is to eliminate these individuals or strike their locations. thank you. firstly, regarding the scud missiles we mentioned at the beginning from the operations, that the ballistic missiles are a target of the air campaign and we mentioned they have been mobilized and trying to hide and we are continuously seeking them. we confirm that we shall dispose of them in the coming days and

confirm that they will no longer be in the hands of this militia. as far as the yemeni army weapons and calgary, when the militias returned over the government they take over supplies, the yemeni army with limited supplies that has now still supports the legitimate government is confronting the militias, and whoever finds it or supports it, i wish to confirm, there arey are now losing their ability over land. they are suffering grave losses whether it's the houthis, themselves, or their loyalists, the pressure is increasing daily, their movement has become very slow. they are very -- they are making erratic decisions. they have random movements and pressure will increase in the forthcoming days until yemen is again safe and secure.

okay. we will leave that briefing there. brigadier general siri giving update on the operations in yemen. let's bring in once again retired jordanian air force general with us in aman. what did you make of what you heard there? especially right at the end, the houthis making erratic movements. it's clear from what the brigadier general said they are under pressure. >> of course they will be under pressure. you know using air power as a tool of punishment, it put people under pressure. it's hard for instance, to hunt service to service missile such as scud. it's endless game sort of using air power and like as we saw the

heading, the store some service to air missile using president very sophisticated bgn, what they call precision guided missile. the very little like one meter. so of course it would be effective. but there is some major rules nearby, shybya which they should be considered to keep it clear from the houthi and al-qaeda because al-qaeda is nearby and they could cut the route supply for the militia or the army of hadi if there is any, because what i believe now is what's going -- what's happening is all of the militia fighting each other, especially in aden or in sanaa. so, there is a major target high-value target like keeping pressure on sabaa, on sanaa and as i mentioned, they are

important. it comes from yemeni, itself. the yemeni people which are moderate, i believe, in their case, you know, something i would like to mention here also. like sala lost credibility. essman youring about by giving some sort of initiative to have a solution at the end. i don't think that's going to happen. therefore, the fighting is now between militias. hadi need to appoint an army general, chief of staff to get this army together getting arab people on the ground. i don't think it would be wise at this stage. >> okay. >> because that means a war of attrition. >> sir, thanks for being with us once again. that's retired jordanian air force general maman abunoa there in aman. we will have a lot more on what we have just heard in that press

briefing in our next bullet here on al jazeera in around 30 minutes' time. i will be back with the headlines in just a few moments. don't forget there is much more of al jazeera's unique brand of real news and opinion and analysis on our website, aljazeera.com. >> slavery in nepal has been abolished, by law. but behind the high walls of many city homes here, young girls continue to serve as slaves. known as kamlari, they are the daughters of indebted farmers, sold to landlords for little