Houthis say airstrikes kill 33 near Yemen capital

At least 33 people were killed in airstrikes on the village of al-Shariya near the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Saturday, the Health Ministry for Yemen's Houthi rebels said. Houthi health ministry spokesman Anees Alasbahi said in a post on X early on Sunday that at least 39 people had been wounded. Eight women and 13 children were among those killed, Alasbahi said.

Earlier, Alasbahi told the Associated Press that Saudi Arabia had carried out the strikes. He said in another post on X that the strikes had hit several homes.

The Houthi-linked Al-Masirah broadcaster showed purported footage of the attack showing piles of debris and wounded people in a hospital. There was no initial comment from Saudi Arabia on the reported strikes.

The Houthis' Saba news agency said the strikes were carried out by Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has not claimed the attack. The Houthi-run health ministry said the strikes hit homes in the Bani Hushaysh area, a Houthi stronghold east of Sanaa, and that most of those killed were women and children.

Abdul-Aziz al-Dailami, director of Sehatuna Hospital in Sanaa, said many victims remained trapped under the rubble, including first responders. "The strikes keep coming. Just as rescuers arrive, another strike hits. We have even lost some of our own medical responders, who have been martyred," he told Reuters. "We received a number of wounded individuals in very critical condition, with injuries to the head, chest and legs, as well as fractures," al-Dailami added.

The Iran-backed Houthis have controlled Sanaa and large swathes of western and northern Yemen since the outbreak of the southern Arabian country's civil war in 2014, while Saudi Arabia backs Yemen's Aden-based internationally recognized government. A yearslong truce in the war fell apart over summer, with the Houthis pushing forward in an offensive and taking more territory along the Red Sea coast in September, including the port city of Mokha and strategic islands in the crucial Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The United Nations says over 1,600 people have been killed and more than 300,000 displaced since the intensification of fighting.

Also on Saturday, pro-government media reported that Yemeni government forces had pushed back a Houthi attack on the al-Aqroud front in the contested Taiz province in southwestern Yemen. Saudi-led coalition forces also reported that they had intercepted a Houthi missile launched towards Saudi Arabia's Riyadh province.

On Friday, an airstrike on a market in southern Yemen killed at least 30 people, according to Houthi officials. The Houthis and Yemeni government forces traded accusations of being behind the strike.

Sources

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