1st commercial flight in years takes off from Yemen’s Sanaa

By AHMED AL-HAJ and SAMY MAGDY
Associated Press

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels say the first commercial flight in six years has taken off from the rebel-held capital, Sanaa. The flight departed Monday with 151 passengers. It’s part of a U.N.-brokered, 60-day truce agreement that the internationally recognized government and the Houthis struck last month. Houthi-run media say the flight by Yemen Airways, also known as Yemenia, was bound for Jordan’s capital of Amman. The truce went into effect on April 2 — the first nationwide cease-fire in six years. Yemen’s civil war erupted in 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthis seized Sanaa, and forced the government into exile. The Saudi-led coalition entered the war in early 2015 to try restore the government to power.