Air strike kills 26 in Yemen: medics, military sources

ADEN: An air strike by a Saudiled Arab coalition on a market in Yemen killed 20 civilians and six rebels on Friday, medical and military sources said.

The aircraft tried to target rebels at a roadblock on the southern outskirts of the Red Sea port of Khokha, but the fighters fled to a market where they were attacked, the sources said.

The raid took place at the entrance to the market that sells the mild narcotic leaf qat, which is very popular among Yemeni men.

A military source close to Saudibacked President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi said that by fleeing to the market, the rebels had used civilians as ‘human shields’.

The rebel television channel al-Masirah also reported the air strike, but give a slightly higher toll of 27 killed and said dozens more were wounded.

The Saudi-led coalition which has been battling Shiite Huthi rebels opposed to Hadi was not immediately available for comment.

The Arab force has come under repeated criticism over civilian casualties in Yemen.

In December, it acknowledged that it had made ‘limited use’ of British-made cluster bombs but said it had stopped using them.

On Thursday, Amnesty International accused the coalition of using banned Brazilian-manufactured cluster munitions in raids on residential areas in northern Saada province, a Shiite stronghold.

In mid-February, a coalition air strike killed eight women and a child at a funeral reception near the rebel-held Yemeni capital, Sanaa.