News / Yemen

Saudi airstrikes leave seven more civilians dead in southern Yemen

Saturday, 27 April 2019 3:08 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 27 April 2019 3:14 PM ]

This picture shows a view of the site of a Saudi airstrike in Sana’a, Yemen, on April 10, 2019. (Photo by AP)

At least seven civilians have been killed when Saudi military aircraft carried out airstrikes in Yemen’s southern province of Dhale as the Riyadh regime presses ahead with its atrocious bombardment campaign against its southern neighbor.

Saudi fighter jets conducted aerial assaults against two civilian cars as they were traveling along a road in the al-‘Awd district of the province on Saturday afternoon, an unnamed local source told Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television network.

The source added that there were women and children among the fatalities.

Earlier in the day, Saudi military aircraft launched airstrikes against residential buildings in the southwestern Yemeni city of Dhamar. There were no immediate reports about possible casualties or the extent of damage caused.

Separately, Yemeni army soldiers and allied fighters from Popular Committees targeted Saudi-backed militiamen loyal to Yemen's former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi at al-Hammad base in Saudi Arabia’s southern border region of Najran, leaving a large number of them dead or injured in the process.

Yemeni soldiers loyal to the Houthi Ansarullah movement line up during a graduation ceremony for a new batch of cadets in the northwestern city of Sa’ada on April 20, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

The development came a day after nearly a dozen people were killed as armed clashes erupted between rival Saudi-paid militiamen in Yemen’s southwestern province of Ta’izz.

A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least 10 people had been killed and dozens of others injured from both sides in the exchange of gunfire.

The official added that many families were forced to evacuate their homes near the site of the fighting amid panic over their lives and safety of their property.

A Yemeni man lies on a bed at a cholera treatment center in Yemen's capital Sana’a on April 25, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of Hadi back to power and crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

According to a December 2018 report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has claimed the lives of over 60,000 Yemenis since January 2016.

The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN said in a report in December 2018 that over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.

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