Coalition suffers deadliest day in Yemen

The UAE bombarded Yemeni rebels with air strikes yesterday as it mourned 45 of its soldiers among dozens killed in the deadliest day yet for the Saudi-led coalition.

Media in Riyadh said 10 Saudi soldiers died in Friday's missile attack in the battleground eastern oil province of Marib.

The strike hit an arms depot, triggering huge explosions that the exiled Yemeni government said also killed five Bahraini coalition troops.

The UAE denounced the attack as "cowardly" and said it would not sap its commitment to the coalition's mission to restore exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

The Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels hailed the missile strike as "revenge" for six months of deadly coalition air raids.

The coalition launched its air war when Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia in March after the rebels entered his last refuge, Yemen's second city Aden.