US expedites arms shipments to Saudi-led coalition

The United States has stepped up weapons deliveries in support of a Saudi-led coalition resisting the advance of Shiite rebels in Yemen, a senior US official said April 7.
      
"Saudi Arabia is sending a strong message to the Huthis and their allies that they cannot overrun Yemen by force," Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in the Saudi capital.
      
"In support of that effort we have expedited weapons deliveries," he said after talks with Defence Minister Mohammed bin Salman and other Saudi officials.
      
"We've increased our intelligence sharing, and we've established a joint coordination planning cell in the Saudi operations centre."       

A US defense official told AFP that Washington was sending primarily precision-guided munitions to the United Arab Emirates, which was then delivering the bombs to Gulf partners.
      
That approach was taken because the UAE already had a contract with the US government for the munitions and Washington was simply expediting the delivery of the weapons, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
      
The shipments of bombs to the Saudi-led coalition was part of the US commitment to provide intelligence and logistical assistance to the air campaign, Pentagon officials said.
      
"It's a combination of pre-existing orders made by partner nations and some new requirements as they expend munitions," spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters in Washington.
      
The Saudi-led coalition on March 26 began air strikes in Yemen, aiming to defeat the Huthi rebels who seized power in the capital Sanaa in February, and who Riyadh feared would take over the entire country and shift it into the orbit of Shiite Iran,...