8 killed, 7 wounded in Houthi mortar shelling in Hodeidah
Houthis intensify shelling and ground offensives in areas controlled by government forces in Hodeidah
Mortar shelling by the Iranbacked Houthis on Sunday killed eight civilians including four children and four women, in the western province of Hodeidah, residents and local officials said.
A mortar fired by the Houthis struck a house in Al- Qazeh village, in Hodeidah’s Durihimi district, killing eight civilians and critically wounding seven more, including four children and three women from the same extended family, Fuad Maki, Durihimi’s director told Arab News.
“This is a crime committed by Houthi militia,” Maki said, sharing graphic images of bloodstained dead children and women. Houthis have intensified their shelling and ground offensives on areas controlled by government forces in Hodeidah in a move to make a military breakthrough that could enable them to drive loyalists from key locations in the province.
Local government officials strongly condemned mortar shelling and ground attacks by the Houthis that contradict their com
mitments to Stockholm Agreement. Hodeidah’s office of the ministry of human right described the Houthi shelling as a “crime against humanity,” accusing the rebels of
exploiting a truce under Stockholm Agreement to attack residential areas in Hodeidah. Local rights groups that document war casualties say that over 500 civilians have been killed in Houthi attacks and landmines since late 2018 when the agreement by signed.
In March, the internationally recognized government of Yemen
suspended participation in the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) in the western province of Hodeidah after a Houthi sniper gunned down a government soldier.
In the neighboring Taiz province, residents said on Saturday that Houthi fighters blew up two houses owned by two of their opponents east of the province. Muhannad Al-Azzani, a local photographer, said on Facebook that Houthis blew up his house and his neighbor’s, giving no reason for the attack. “The Houthi militia blew up our house next to Muhammad Ali Othman school. And (they blew up) the house of our neighbor, Amin Al-Sharabi,” Al-Azzani said on his Facebook page, attracting big support and sympathy from his followers on social media. Even before taking power by force in late 2014, the Houthis have blown up hundreds of houses of tribal leaders, army and security officers, journalists, activists and politicians who challenged their rule in the provinces of Sanaa, Amran, Taiz, Al-Bayda and Jouf. Yemen’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday that army troops and allied tribesmen pushed back a Houthi assault on contested areas northeast the central province of Marib.
In Sanaa, warplanes from the Arab coalition on Sunday carried several air sorties, targeting military sites around Sanaa airport controlled by the Houthis, triggering big explosions that rocked the capital. On Friday, at least seven drones, and ballistic missile silos inside and outside Sanaa were heavily bombarded by coalition’s warplanes. In Riyadh, Prime Minister-designate Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed said on Sunday that consultations related to the formation of a new government have reached the final stage, renewing his government’s commitments to positively respond to peace initiatives. During a meeting with the Russian ambassador to Yemen Vladimir Dedushkin, the prime minister urged the international community to pressure the Houthis till they accept peace proposals and stop their naval attacks that undermine marine traffic in the Red Sea.