Daijiworld Media Network - Sanaa
Sanaa, Nov 8: At least 27 people, most of them women and children, were killed and 36 others injured in Saudi-led coalition airstrikes on Al-Shariya village in Yemen's Sanaa province, Houthi media reported on Saturday, as fighting intensifies in the country's renewed civil war.
The Houthi health ministry said the death toll had risen to 27, with rescue operations continuing to recover victims from beneath the rubble. The group's Saba news agency earlier reported that aircraft had carried out two strikes targeting paramedics at the site.
Footage broadcast by Houthi-run Al-Masirah television, which it said was filmed in Al-Shariya, showed smoke rising from the bombed area, piles of debris and injured people receiving treatment in hospital.
Saudi Arabia, which is backing Yemen's internationally recognised government in the conflict against the Houthis, has not commented on the reported casualties.
Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition said on Saturday that it had intercepted and destroyed a Houthi missile launched towards Riyadh province.
The Houthis, in turn, claimed to have carried out multiple missile and drone attacks targeting Saudi troops and infrastructure in the kingdom and inside Yemen. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said six operations had targeted Aramco oil facilities, Riyadh airport and Saudi military positions on both sides of the border.
The latest violence follows a deadly attack on a market in Yemen's Taiz province on Friday, in which at least 30 people were reportedly killed. The Houthis blamed Saudi airstrikes for the attack, while Yemen's government forces accused the Iran-backed group of firing a ballistic missile at the site.
Yemen returned to intensified fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government in July, following years of relative calm. The renewed conflict has opened another front in the wider Middle East crisis, with Saudi Arabia regularly carrying out airstrikes against Houthi positions and the group stepping up attacks against the oil-rich kingdom.
The United Nations has reported that more than 1,600 people have been killed and over 300,000 displaced since fighting resumed, adding to the humanitarian crisis in one of the world's poorest countries.