The Saudi military Saturday carried out a new airstrike on a populated market in Yemen’s northern province of Sana’a.
Local witnesses said at least 40 people were killed in the airstrike that targeted the market in the Nehm district, northeast of the capital, Sana’a.
However, Yemen’s official news agency Saba, citing security sources, identified the marketplace as Khalqah, saying a total of 60 people were killed.
Other Yemeni sources, including the Masirah TV, put the death toll at 25.
The attack on the market is the latest in a string of Saudi airstrikes targeting civilians in Yemen. Since the beginning of the deadly campaign of the Riyadh regime in March 2015, Saudi Arabia has claimed that its attacks are meant to hit members of the Houthi Ansarullah movement.
However, frequent reports have shown that Saudi warplanes target residential buildings and places of gatherings for the civilians, including mosques and bazaars, in Yemen, especially in the northern regions, where the Houthis enjoy more support. This has promoted international rights campaigners to document cases of alleged war crimes by the Saudis in Yemen.
Yemeni media reported other Saudi attacks on Saturday on areas in the northern province of Ma’rib and the central province of Ta’izz.
More than 8,300 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in nearly one year of Saudi airstrikes, which Riyadh says are also meant to restore power to Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, the fugitive former president who escaped to Saudi Arabia after Houthis seized control of the capital in September 2014.