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Rockets hit busy market in Yemen's Taiz, 18 civilians killed

Xinhua, June 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

Rocket attack killed 18 civilians and injured dozens of others in Yemen's southern province of Taiz on Friday evening, a security official told Xinhua.

In the latest violent incident that occurred in a busy market in Taiz, 18 civilians, mostly women, were killed and dozens of others injured while they were shopping, the local security source said on condition of anonymity.

"Fighters of the Shiite Houthi group indiscriminately fired Katyusha rockets and mortar shells that slammed into a residential area and a crowded market, leaving many innocent civilians dead and injured," the Yemeni source said.

Meantime, media outlets of the Shiite Houthi rebels rejected their involvement in firing any rockets and killing civilians in Taiz.

Local medical sources said that more than 35 people were injured when rockets hit a pre-Ramadan Shopping Bazaar in Taiz.

Hospitals in Taiz were calling for urgent blood donations and medical aids for the injured civilians, according to the local medics.

Yemen's province of Taiz, the most devastated by the ongoing conflict, has been besieged for more than ten months by Houthis who prevent the entry of humanitarian aids.

The Iran-allied Shiite Houthi group and forces loyal to Saleh advanced from their far north stronghold of Saada province and stormed the capital Sanaa and other cities in September 2014, dissolved the Saudi-backed government and expelled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on allegations of combating "corruption."

Saudi-led coalition air forces intervened since March 2015, vowing to return Hadi to power and Sanaa. So far, Hadi and his government were still in exile in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

The civil war has escalated since then, leaving more than 6,000 killed so far in ground battles and airstrikes, half of them civilians.

The ongoing conflict has also displaced more than 2.4 million people in Yemen.

The warring parties have been in talks in Kuwait since April under the auspices of the United Nations to end the war, but no tangible breakthroughs have been made. Endit