Saudi Airstrikes Kill 25 Yemeni Civilians

At least 25 Yemeni civilians were killed when Saudi-led coalition aircraft struck a market in the northern Saada Province, a local health official said on Sunday, the latest in a string of deadly incidents in the 27-month-old conflict.

Officials from the Saudi-led coalition could not immediately be reached for comment on the report, Reuters reported. Yemen has been torn by a civil war in which the fugitive president, Abd-Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, is trying to roll back gains made by the Houthi group that controls most of northern Yemen, including the capital Sana’a.

The director of the Houthi-run Health Department office in Saada said the aircraft conducted two raids on al-Mashnaq market in Shada District, which is close to the Saudi border, on Saturday, killing 25 people and wounding at least one.

“Rescue teams were unable to reach the area for some time for fear of being hit by artillery shelling of the area,” the official, Dr Abdelilah al-Azzi, told Reuters by telephone. A Saudi-led coalition airstrike killed 22 people and wounded dozens when it struck a market in western Yemen near the Red Sea fishing town of Khoukha in March.

Khoukha and the nearby city of Hodeidah are controlled by the Houthis who overran Sana’a in 2014 and moved south to Aden in 2015 forcing Hadi to flee into exile.