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5 more Yemeni civilians killed in Saudi-led airstrikes

Xinhua,February 22, 2018 Adjust font size:

ADEN, Yemen, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Airstrikes launched by fighter jets of the Saudi-led coalition hit a vehicle in Yemen's southwestern province of Taiz on Wednesday, killing at least five civilians, a military official told Xinhua.

The military official, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the Saudi-led fighter jets mistakenly targeted a traveling vehicle in Muza'a area of Taiz province, leaving at least five civilians killed at the scene.

Witnesses confirmed that the Saudi-led airstrike completely destroyed the vehicle which was passing near a fighting area in Taiz.

"All people killed were not fighters and had no connection to the warring factions in Taiz," a local resident said.

Elsewhere in western Yemen, the Saudi-led coalition launched a series of airstrikes and targeted Houthi-controlled sites in Hodeidah province.

Sources said that a number of Houthi fighters were either killed or injured due to the intensified air bombing carried out by the Saudi-led coalition to support government forces on-ground.

Yemen's government, allied with the Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has for about three years been battling Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels over control of the country.

The coalition began a military air campaign in March 2015 to roll back Houthi gains and reinstate the internationally-recognized President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was forced into exile by the Houthis, to power.

The coalition also imposed air and sea blockade to prevent weapons from reaching Houthis, who had invaded the capital Sanaa militarily and seized most of the northern Yemeni provinces.

UN statistics show more than 10,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since the coalition intervened in the Yemeni civil war that also displaced around 3 million.

The Arab country is also suffering from the world's largest cholera epidemic since April last year, with about 5,000 cases reported every day. Enditem

 

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