Saudi Arabia’s fresh airstrikes have pounded several positions, including an orphanage and a university, in the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a, leaving at least nine people dead.
According to reports on Saturday, Saudi fighter jets targeted an orphanage in the Sofan neighborhood of Sana’a, killing at least eight people and injuring four others.
At least one civilian was also killed in another attack by Saudi warplanes on the Hamdan district of the capital.
Saudi airstrikes also struck the Iman University and several residential areas in Sana’a.
The Saudi military also launched eight attacks against the central Yemeni province of Ma’rib. There is still no word on possible casualties from the raid.
Riyadh’s deadly operations came a day after the Ansarullah fighters of the Houthi movement launched retaliatory attacks against the positions of aggressor forces from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The separate attacks left 66 aggressor forces killed, including 45 from the UAE, 16 from Saudi Arabia and 5 from Bahrain.
The Emirati and Bahraini officials have confirmed the heavy casualties, but Riyadh says it lost only ten forces in the Houthis’ retaliatory attack.
‘Incomprehensible’ scale of civilian suffering
On Friday, the United Nations (UN) voiced concern over the worsening humanitarian crisis in Yemen, saying it will release USD 15 million in funds to address the “almost incomprehensible” scale of civilians’ suffering in the impoverished Arab country.
“The civilian population is bearing the brunt of the conflict: a shocking four out of five Yemenis require humanitarian assistance and nearly 1.5 million people are internally displaced,” said Stephen O’Brien, the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.
On March 26, Saudi Arabia began its aggression against Yemen – without a UN mandate – in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and restore power to Yemen’s fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.
The conflict has so far left about 4,500 people dead and thousands of others wounded, the UN says. Local Yemeni sources, however, say the fatality figure is much higher.