Saudi-led errant airstrike kills 29 in Yemen

Warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemeni Shiite Houthi rebels mistakenly hit a residential quarter in Yemen's city of Taiz overnight and killed 29 civilians, officials said on Friday, while indiscriminate clashes between Yemeni warring parties there killed 23 other civilians.

The airstrikes overnight hit Saalah neighborhood, destroying several houses and partially flattened others made of mud bricks into the ground, said the officials.

Medics and witnesses said a total of 29 people, mostly women and children, were killed in the air raid and up to 40 others were wounded, as rescue operations continued to search for possible survivors from under the rubble.

The overnight airstrikes also pounded rebel positions in nearby rebel-held Special Security Camp in eastern Taiz, said the officials and witnesses. There were no words of casualties among Shiite rebels and their allied forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The air raids came as the Shiite rebels, mostly stationing on the entrances of Taiz, intensively shelled several neighborhoods in the city, apparently targeting their Saudi-backed foes loyal to exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The clashes and shelling by mortars and katyusha concentrated in the residential quarters of Almasbah, Osaifira and Ammar bin Yasser neighborhood. Witnesses said scores of houses were damaged and some caught on fire.

Medical sources said the nightlong indiscriminate clashes and shelling caused the death of 23 civilians, including 14 children, and wounded 54 others. There was no information about casualties among the warring forces as both sides rarely tell media about their losses.

Taiz, the third largest Yemeni city about 256 km south of Sanaa, is seen the main gateway to the capital, which the rebels overran it in last September.

Ground fighting between the warring parties and Saudi-led airstrikes continued Friday in other major provinces, including al-Hodayda, al-Bayda, Marib and Ibb.

About five months of escalating violence across Yemen has left over 80 percent of the country's population, or more than 20 million people, in hunger and in need of emergency aid as the people have limited access to electricity, fuel, food, water and medicine since the civil war broke out in late March.

Forces loyal to the government exiled to the Saudi capital Riyadh have recently achieved a series of advances backed by the Saudi-led coalition's warplanes against rebel positions.

The coalition launched airstrikes on a daily basis since March 26 when Hadi fled to Riyadh to take refuge, aiming to restore Hadi's authority in the country.

Over four weeks ago, Hadi's forces, backed by elite troops and armored vehicles from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, launched a number of offensives leading to the capture of Aden, Lahj, al-Dhalea, Abyan and Shabwa provinces.

There is no sign that the warring parties intend to end the civil war, as UN humanitarian agencies have recorded at least 6,221 civilian casualties, including at least 1,950 civilians killed and 4,271 wounded, and over one million displaced in nearly five months of civil war. Endit