41 dead or injured as Saudi jets strike
U.S.-aided coalition goes after Houthi rebels near capital.
At least SANAA, YEMEN — 41 civilians were killed or wounded Wednesday in Yemen, the first day in two months that airstrikes by the U.S.-backed, Saudi Arabia-led coalition struck targets around the capital, a U.N. official said.
Estimates of casualties made by authorities in Sanaa, dominated by the Houthi rebels who are fighting the Saudis, were even higher, putting the toll at 71 dead or wounded from at least three airstrikes around the capital.
For more than two years, the Saudis have been fighting the Houthi rebels, whom they believe are receiving military support from Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival.
Saudi officials have insisted their aircraft avoid civilian targets, but hospitals, schools and other civilian facilities have been struck by Saudi warplanes. Last October, the coalition confirmed that one of its jets had accidentally bombed a wedding party in Sanaa, killing 100 people.
Because of the risk of civilian casualties, the Saudis had said they were refraining from airstrikes in and around the capital, but the attacks resumed Wednesday without explanation.
Most of the victims Wednesday were seasonal agricultural workers staying in a hotel in the district of Arhab, about 20 miles north of Sanaa, a security official said. They were there to harvest khat, the mildly narcotic plant to which a large percentage of Yemen’s population is addicted.
Asked whether the Saudis bore any of the responsibility for the humanitarian disaster afflicting Yemen, Saudi Arabia’s United Nations ambassador, Abdallah Y. Al-Mouallimi, said: “absolutely not.” He cast blame on the Houthis, asserting they had blocked or impeded access to civilian areas under their control.
The conflict in Yemen has already left 10,000 people dead, displaced 2 million more from their homes and caused severe food shortages, according to U.N. reports. A recent report by the World Health Organization said that a severe outbreak of cholera had infected half a million Yemenis, with more than 2,000 dead so far. That crisis has worsened as the fighting disrupts medical facilities and fresh water supplies, the agency said.
The international airport in Sanaa has been closed for a year now, making it difficult for Yemenis to seek medical care outside the country. The Saudi-led coalition recently proposed that the United Nations reopen and manage the airport, but there seems little likelihood of that.
The airstrike near Sanaa came on the same day that Saudi pilots took Gen. Joseph L. Votel, the head of the U.S. Central Command, to the Saudi-Yemen border.