Saudi-led air raids killed 21 civilians in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, yesterday morning, relatives of the victims and medics told reporters, two days after the start of a UN-brokered humanitarian truce that Riyadh does not recognize.
“Three missiles targeted the neighborhood, destroying 15 houses and killing 21 people and wounding 45 others,” a resident said.
A Saudi-led Arab coalition has been bombing the Houthi militia and army forces loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh since March 26, aiming to push them back from southern and central areas and restore the nation’s exiled government.
Photo: Reuters
The Houthis, who are said to be allied to Riyadh’s main regional rival, Iran, advanced from their northern stronghold a year ago, capturing Sana’a in September last year and then pushing south earlier this year, prompting the Saudi-led strikes.
More than 3,000 people have been killed in the fighting and strikes so far, amplifying an existing humanitarian crisis, but the Houthis and Saleh’s forces remain embedded across the populated Western side of the country.
The UN brokered a pause in the fighting on Friday to allow humanitarian aid to be delivered, but the Saudi-led coalition said that it had not been asked by exiled Yemeni president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, in whose name it is acting, to stop its raids.
Saudi Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asiri, the spokesman of the coalition, was reported by Asharq al-Awsat newspaper as saying that there would be no truce because Houthis were not committed to a ceasefire and no UN observers had been deployed on the ground to monitor possible violations.
There have also been reports of fighting in breach of the ceasefire in Aden, Marib and Taiz, the main theaters of battle involving local resistance movements, tribes, Muslim militants, the Houthis and Saleh’s forces.
Houthi leader Saleh al-Samad said the continued Saudi raids present “a clear challenge to the international community to shoulder its responsibilities and seriously try to stop this aggression.”
A UN Security Council resolution in April demanded that the Houthis and Saleh’s forces leave areas they have captured, release prisoners and surrender weapons taken from military units that have been overrun.
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