Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE pull together to rebuild bombed cities

Cairo, Egypt (AP) Hundreds of Egyptian military personnel and government officials gathered Wednesday in Cairo, to celebrate the successful completion of a $1.3 billion project to rebuild three bombed cities, in a gesture of reconciliation between the Middle Eastern nation and Saudi Arabia.

The military said that it had recovered more than 1,000 pieces of destroyed buildings and nearly 300 tons of rubble.

A Saudi-led coalition has bombed cities and towns in neighboring Yemen in an effort to rein in Shiite rebels and the Iran-aligned Houthi movement.

The U.S. and Egypt said the bombing campaign in Yemen is targeting Houthi rebels who have seized much of the country and are blamed for killing hundreds of civilians.

But the coalition has accused Iran of providing the Houthis with weapons and training.

The bombing campaign has killed hundreds of people, and the coalition said Tuesday it had killed at least 12 civilians and more than 100 fighters.

Egypt’s foreign minister, Mohamed ElBaradei, called the two-day summit a chance for all parties to resolve their differences and to “make the right decision in order to build a safer future for Egypt and for the whole region.”

Egypt is one of the countries targeted by the Saudi-Arabia-led military coalition that is fighting Yemen.

Egypt has not been directly hit by airstrikes in the past but is close to the Saudi border and regularly sees them.

The two sides agreed to continue cooperating on counterterrorism efforts, including efforts to locate the missing U.N. observers in the southern part of the kingdom.