Saudi-led airstrikes kill more than 120 in Yemen

SANAA, YEMEN— Saudi-led coalition airstrikes killed more than 120 civilians and wounded more than150 in a residential area in the Yemeni province of Taiz on Friday evening, security officials, medical officials and witnesses said.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, said that most of the houses in the area were levelled by the shelling and a fire broke out in the port city of Mokha. Most of the corpses, including children, women and elderly people, were charred by the flames, they said. Ahmed Mohammed al-Mouzay, a resident of the area who participated in rescue operations, said most of his neighbours had died. Many of the dead and wounded were transported in private cars or in animal-drawn carts to hospitals, he added.

Security officials said this comes after Saudi-led coalition planes launched dozens of airstrikes on positions of Shiite Houthi rebels and their allies in Mokha. The closest Houthi outpost to Friday evening’s deadly strike is at least five kilometres away, officials and area residents said.