Children among dead in air raid on Yemen capital

At least 42 people have been killed in airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition this week, according to the UN

People carry the body of a woman they recovered from under the rubble of a house destroyed by a Saudi-led air strike in Sanaa (Reuters)

 

Friday 25 August 2017

Children were among at least nine people killed in an air strike Friday in a residential neighbourhood of Yemen's capital Sanaa, witnesses and medics said.

The attack destroyed two buildings in the southern district of Faj Attan, leaving people buried under debris, they said.

Medics and a rebel security source confirmed at least nine people had died in the strike.

An AFP photographer on the scene said the two buildings, both three storeys high, were destroyed.

Mohammed Ahmad, who lived in one of the buildings, said he was among those who had taken nine bodies to a hospital.

"We extracted them one by one from under the rubble," he said. "Some of them were children from a single family."

"When the rocket hit, one of the buildings was immediately destroyed which caused the building next door to collapse too. Some residents got out, but others were trapped."

Residents and rescuers dug through debris to retrieve the bloodied, dust-covered bodies of several children, who appeared aged under 10 years old.

People at the scene told Reuters the jets were believed to be from a Saudi-led Arab coalition, which has waged a two-year campaign against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement for control of the country.

People search under rubble of a house destroyed by a Saudi-led air strike in Sanaa (Reuters)

The strikes comes as the UN warned that 42 civilians had been killed by airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen over the past week, with multiple children among the dead

"In the week from 17 August to 24 August, 58 civilians have been killed, including 42 by the Saudi-led coalition," UN human rights office spokeswoman Liz Throssell said in Geneva, documenting a series of attacks on non-military targets. 

The Massira television channel run by the Houthi rebels who control the capital said Friday's air strike had killed 14 civilians including six children, blaming the Saudi-led coalition for the strike.

The World Health Organisation estimates nearly 8,400 civilians have been killed and 47,800 wounded since the Saudi-led alliance intervened.

The country also faces a deadly cholera outbreak that has claimed nearly 2,000 lives and affected more than half a million people since late April.

The combination of war, disease and blockades imposed on ports and Yemen's airspace have pushed the country, long the poorest in the Arab world, to the brink of famine.