Yemen mourners die in air strike
AN air strike killed eight women and a child at a funeral reception near the Yemeni capital, adding to the conflict’s mounting civilian death toll.
At least 10 other women had been wounded in the overnight raid on the district of Arhab, 40km north of Sanaa, medics said yesterday.
The Iran-backed Huthi Shiite rebels, who seized large parts of the country including the capital in 2014, accused the Saudi-backed Arab coalition supporting the Yemeni government of carrying out the strike.
A coalition statement said the group was investigating the reports that civilians had been killed in the raid.
Mohammed Al Nakii, whose home was hit, said that at the time of the bombing he had been receiving condolences for his brother, who died on Sunday.
He said his own wife had been among those killed.
Nakii said he had seen four women die immediately and described the attack as barbaric.
It was not clear if the house was deliberately targeted.
Bloodstains, clothing and shoes were seen among the rubble.
Yemen’s war pits the interna- tionally recognised govern- ment of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi against Huthi insurgents allied with forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The Saudi-led Arab coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 on the side of Hadi says it does not target civilians.
But it has faced repeated allegations of deliberately striking weddings, funerals, schools and hospitals.
In October, the coalition admitted to killing 140 people in an air strike on a funeral in Sanaa, blaming the deaths on incorrect information. It had initially denied involvement.
A raid on Wednesday targeted a Huthi post in Khokha, south of the major Red Sea port of Hodeida, killing 15 rebels and wounding 20 others, according to military sources allied with the Arab coalition.
The sources said the raid, which came as government forces prepare for an assault to retake rebel-held Hodeida, had targeted armoured vehicles at a base in Khokha.
Khokha lies between Hodeida and government-controlled Mokha further south on the Red Sea coast.
Forces loyal to the government took full control of Mokha last week as part of a major offensive to oust the Huthis and their allies from Yemen’s southwestern coast.
The Huthis have carried out retaliatory rocket strikes on Saudi Arabia and engaged in fire-fights along the border since the start of the coalition campaign.
Saudi Arabia said yesterday it had intercepted another missile fired by Huthi rebels at its territory.
The state-run Saudi Press Agency reported the missile had been headed for the city of Khamis Mushait, about 100km from the Yemeni border.
Khamis Mushait is home to an air base central to the coalition campaign against the Huthis.
The United Nations says more than 7 400 people, including about 1 400 children, have been killed in two years of fighting in Yemen.
Three million others have been displaced, according to the UN.
New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch released a report yesterday blaming the coalition for a January 10 air strike that hit a market, killing five people.