Saudi-led airstrikes kill over 40 in southwestern Yemen

ADEN, Yemen, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- Warplanes of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition struck a crowded popular market in the southwestern province of Taiz on Tuesday, killing over 40 people, local media reported.

The airstrikes targeted the market in the district of AlTaiziya of Taiz province, killing more than 40 shoppers and injuring scores of others, local media outlets reported.

The Houthi-affiliated Masirah TV channel said that "more than 50 dead civilians were sent to hospitals following the Saudi-led airstrikes on Shuhrah market."

The Houthi television broadcasted footages from the bombing site saying that "scores of burned dead bodies are still scattered in the market with unknown identities."

Witnesses near the scene told Xinhua that the airstrikes "caused a huge number of casualties because it occurred during rush hour of the market which was filled with shoppers coming from nearby villages."

On Monday, a family of nine members, including five children, were killed when Saudi-led coalition warplanes hit the family's house five times in Yemen's capital Sanaa.

At the same time, intense fighting between Yemeni forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition and the Shiite Houthi rebels continued in various provinces of the Arab country.

Airstrikes were launched by fighter jets of the Saudi-led coalition against Houthi-controlled sites in Yemen's war-torn province of Hodeidah in the past hours, leaving unknown casualties.

The Saudi-led coalition has intervened in the Yemeni conflict since March 2015 to roll back the Houthi rebels and support the internationally recognized President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was forced into exile by the Houthis.

The war has killed over 10,000 Yemenis, mostly children, and displaced 3 million others, creating one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Enditem