Airstrikes ‘kill 20’ at wedding

Airstrikes by a Saudi-led military coalition killed at least 20 people attending a wedding in a village in northwestern Yemen, residents and medical sources said.

The reports came as the Houthi movement claimed a Saudi-led coalition airstrike last week killed its top civilian leader, the most senior official to be killed by the Westernbacked alliance in the 3-yearold war. Saleh al-Samad held the post of president in the Houthi-backed political body which runs most of northern Yemen. Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in a televised statement that Samad was killed last week in the port city of Hodeidah, on Yemen’s west coast, in strikes which killed six others in his retinue.

“The forces of aggression, led by America and Saudi Arabia, bear the legal responsibility for this crime and all its consequences,” al-Houthi said.

Meanwhile, the head of Al Jumhouri hospital in Hajjah said the hospital had received 40 bodies, most of them torn to pieces, after airstrikes hit a wedding gathering. Residents and medics said 20 people attending the celebration were killed and at least 30 injured.

The alliance has launched thousands of airstrikes in a campaign to restore the internationally recognised government. The war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than 2 million and driven the country to the verge of famine, the UN says.— Reuters