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Air strikes on a village near Sanaa kill 25, mostly women and children, Houthis say
The Houthi-run health ministry blamed Saudi Arabia and said a second round of strikes hit rescuers digging survivors out. Riyadh has not commented.
Key points
- Air strikes on al-Shariya village killed 25 people and wounded 30, mostly women and children, according to the Houthi-run health ministry.
- The Houthi health spokesman said later strikes hit rescue workers pulling survivors from the rubble.
- It came a day after Houthi officials said 30 people died in strikes on a market in southern Yemen, with each side blaming the other.
Air strikes on a farming village near Yemen’s capital killed 25 people and wounded 30 on Saturday, most of them women and children, according to the Houthi-run health ministry. The Houthis blamed Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has not commented, and the casualty figures could not be independently confirmed.
The strikes hit homes in al-Shariya, in the Bani Hushaysh district about 15 km north-east of Sanaa, which is held by the Iran-backed Houthi movement. Houthi-run media had earlier put the toll at 22 dead and 30 injured.
Anees Alasbahi, the health ministry’s spokesman, said civilians were still trapped under rubble. He said later strikes targeted emergency workers who were pulling survivors out. The Houthis said Saudi jets or the Saudi-led coalition carried out the attacks. The coalition has said in the past that its air strikes target Houthi military infrastructure.
A second bloody day
The strike on al-Shariya came a day after Houthi officials said 30 people were killed in strikes on a market in southern Yemen. In that case the Houthis and Yemen’s Saudi-backed military each blamed the other side. Government forces also said they had pushed back a Houthi attack on the al-Aqroud front in Taiz province.
A war that has reopened
The fighting is fiercer than it has been for years. A truce that held for a long time collapsed over the summer. The Houthis control Sanaa, the north and the west, while Saudi-backed forces hold the south and east. The Houthis have taken parts of the Red Sea coast and islands in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and have hit Saudi airports, oil sites and military targets.
Taiz, a government-held city, is now encircled by Houthi forces and its residents face shortages of water and food. Pope Leo XIV appealed last month for an end to the fighting there, and the UN has said nearly 260,000 people have been displaced since August.
The UN says the war, which began in 2014, has killed at least 150,000 people.