Saudi-led airstrike leaves 20 people killed in Yemen's Taiz

At least 20 people were killed and several others injured when an airstrike of the Saudi-led coalition forces targeted a military camp in Yemen's southern province of Taiz on Sunday morning, a government official told Xinhua.

"The Saudi-led airstrike bombed headquarters of the 22nd Armored Brigade controlled by Shiite Houthi gunmen in Janad area of Taiz, killing at least 20 people and injuring others, including civilians," the official of Taiz's local government said on condition of anonymity.

The airstrike caused heavy material damages inside the military camp and partially destroyed some nearby houses in the area, the government source said.

Ahmed Walyd, a resident in Janad area of Taiz, where the Saudi-led air bombing took place, told Xinhua that "a number of missiles also struck a small village and a poultry farm next to the military camp."

In the southern port city of Aden, intense fighting between pro-Houthi forces and tribal militia linked to Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi continued in several areas across the province despite the Saudi-led air raids on Houthi-held sites.

Witnesses told Xinhua that warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition forces pounded Sunday some Houthi-controlled sites in and around Hadi's Presidential Palace in Aden's neighborhood of Cirater, with no immediate reports of casualties.

The Shiite Houthi group backed by armored army units took control over Hadi's Presidential Palace during the past few weeks after fierce fighting that left hundreds of people either killed or injured from both sides.

Thousands of families evacuated from Aden as a result of the ongoing armed clashes in several neighborhoods of the city with intensified air and naval bombings by the Saudi-led coalition forces.

Several Yemeni government officials in Aden warn of an environmental catastrophe as bodies of killed people are scattered across the main streets for days, plus no garbage collection.

The security situation in Yemen has sharply deteriorated since early March when conflicts erupted in several provinces in the country's southern regions.

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia started late last month airstrikes on Houthi targets in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and other cities, saying the multinational action is to protect President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's legitimacy and force the Houthis to retreat from cities they have seized since September 2014. Endit