Dozens dead in Yemen as Iran, Saudi Arabia step up war of words

Fighting between Shiite rebels and loyalists killed dozens of people across Yemen as Iran accused Saudi Arabia of using Cold War-era tactics by air dropping leaflets warning of "Persian expansion".

A Saudi-led coalition carried out air strikes for a seventh straight day since announcing a halt to its aerial campaign, hitting Sanaa airport among other targets, an AFP correspondent and witnesses said.

The conflict has exposed deteriorating relations between the Middle East's foremost powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran, which are increasingly seen as vying for supremacy in the region beset by bloody turmoil.

On Tuesday, at least 70 people were killed in fighting between the Iran-backed rebels and pro-government forces in several parts of the country, sources said.

Stepping up a war of words, a security chief in Shiite Iran hit out at the Saudi-led coalition of Sunni Arab states for dropping the leaflets.

"Dropping these leaflets, as untrue as they are, has the goal of frightening the Yemeni people," said Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.

The leaflets were dropped for two weeks during Operation Decisive Storm -- the air campaign which officially ended on April 21.

They said in Arabic: "My brother of Yemen. The real goal of the coalition is to support the people of Yemen against the Persian expansion," in reference to Iran's language and ancient name.

But Shamkhani, a close adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, countered by saying Tehran was helping in Yemen by opposing the air strikes and providing aid.

He described the leaflets as "simplistic" and accused the Saudis of backward thinking.

"This is a technique that Western governments used to frighten people in the Cold War era," he said.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief General Mohammad Ali Jafari said on Monday that Saudi Arabia was verging on collapse and accused it of following "in the footsteps of Israel and the Zionists" by bombing Yemen, the Arab world's poorest state.

On Tuesday, air raids hit the airport in the rebel-held capital Sanaa, according to witnesses.