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Saudi-Led Airstrikes Kill 14 Civilians in Sanaa

Saudi-Led Airstrikes Kill 14 Civilians in Sanaa
Saudi-Led Airstrikes Kill 14 Civilians in Sanaa

Airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition targeted Yemen’s capital early on Friday, hitting at least three houses in Sanaa and killing at least 14 civilians, including women and children, residents and eyewitnesses said.

The attack was the latest by the coalition, which has been waging a relentless air campaign against Yemen’s Houthi fighters for the past two years, AP reported.

Recently, the strikes in and around the capital, Sanaa, targeting army compounds and other locations of Houthis, have intensified. On Wednesday, coalition fighter jets struck a hotel in the town of Arhab, north of Sanaa, killing at least 41 people.

Friday’s strikes hit the city’s southern neighborhood of Fag Attan. The death toll was expected to rise further as rescuers pulled more victims from under the rubble.

The escalation comes amid signs of fracturing between the two main components of the alliance in Sanaa, the Houthis and loyalists of ex-president, Ali Abdullah Saleh — a standoff that has triggered fears of street violence.

The alliance controls much of northern Yemen, including Sanaa.

The coalition, led by US-backed Saudi Arabia and including a string of other Arab states, is trying to restore the fugitive president Abd-Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to power.

On Thursday, ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh drew about 300,000 supporters for a rally in the streets of Sanaa in a public show of support for him amid the tensions with the Houthis. Saleh’s supporters said in a statement that the party will evaluate its partnership with the Houthis.

The war has shown no signs of abating.

The Saudi-led airstrikes have hit schools, hospitals, and markets, killing thousands of civilians and prompting rights groups to accuse the coalition of war crimes. Activists have called upon Western countries, including the United States and Britain, to cease their military support for the coalition.

The conflict has killed over 10,000 civilians, displaced 3 million people and pushed the impoverished nation to the brink of famine.

The United Nations human rights office called on Friday for an independent investigation into airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition.

“We remind all parties to the conflict, including the coalition, of their duty to ensure full respect for international humanitarian law,” UN human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell saud. “It is not clear at this point what investigations there have been and what they have led to.”

In the week to Aug. 24, 58 civilians were killed in Yemen, “including 42 by the Saudi-led coalition,”

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