At least six civilians have sustained injuries when Saudi fighter jets launched a series of airstrikes against a commercial neighborhoods in Yemen’s central province of Ma'rib.
Yemeni Arabic-language al-Masirah television network, citing local sources, reported that four children and two men were injured when Saudi warplanes bombarded al-Ardhiya village in the Mahliyah district of the province on Friday.
The report added that two of the injured children are in critical condition.
The development came on the same day that the deputy foreign minister of Yemen's National Salvation Government warned that al-Qaeda forces were joining Saudi-led mercenaries in Ma'rib province.
“The redeployment of al-Qaeda forces in Ma’rib is a major mistake that will serve no one and will cause a catastrophe that no side can avoid,” Hussein al-Ezzi warned in a tweet on Friday.
“[Former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur] Hadi and the [affiliated] Islah Party have to abandon such coward policies and malicious type of thinking,” he added.
The airstrikes come as the Saudi coalition braces for a looming Yemeni operation that seeks to liberate the strategic region.
Separately, four Saudi-sponsored militiamen loyal to Yemen's former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur were killed on Friday when Saudi-led jets “mistakenly” bombed their vehicle in Yemen's northeastern province of al-Jawf.
A military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “the airstrike struck the military vehicle east of al-Hazm district.”
He said the eastern part of Hazm has been the scene of fierce clashes between pro-Hadi forces and Ansarullah fighters during the past 24 hours.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched the campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing Hadi’s government back to power.
The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives for more than the past five years.
The Houthi movement, backed by the armed forces, has been defending Yemen against the Saudi-led alliance, preventing the aggressors from fulfilling the objectives of their deadly campaign.