Saudi airstrikes hit a market in Yemen, dozens killed and wounded

Saudi Arabia, a key ally of Yemen’s internationally recognised government, carried out at least two airstrikes on a market in the southwestern sector of the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula on Sunday, the Houthi rebels announced, citing dozens dead and wounded.

Local media had earlier reported seven dead and 40 wounded, including five children.

Later, the Houthi military-affairs spokesman, Yahya Sharia, spoke of nearly 50 casualties, without distinguishing between dead and wounded, accusing the Saudi air force of carrying out “two raids against a market” on the outskirts of Taiz.

This “unjustly shed blood” will not remain without “consequences” for Saudi Arabia, Sheriati emphasised.

The large city of Taiz, controlled by government forces, lies on one of the main fronts of fighting with the rebels.

Footage broadcast by Masira shows cars with shattered windows and damaged warehouses, as well as goods scattered around.

After several years of relative calm, Yemen plunged back into war in July, becoming a new front in the wider Middle East conflict.

The fighting pits the Houthis, who control the capital Sanaa and now Yemen’s Red Sea coast, against the forces of the internationally recognised government. The latter, based in Aden, controls most of the country’s southern and eastern parts, which are equally vast but far less populated.

The conflict intensified in September, when the rebels seized, within 24 hours, launching a deadly attack, the entire Yemeni coastline on the Red Sea, consolidating their control over the strategically important Bab el-Mandeb strait, which connects Europe with Asia via the Suez Canal.

They also announced the imposition of a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude-oil exporter, and targeted the kingdom’s oil infrastructure and tankers, as well as the capital Riyadh, for the first time in years.

On Saturday, the powerful Gulf monarchy announced it had intercepted two drones “launched by the paramilitary terrorist organisation Houthi towards the Riyadh area”.

Against this backdrop, schools in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, announced on Sunday that they would operate with distance learning for a week.

Despite daily Saudi airstrikes and continued fighting on the ground, the forces of Yemen’s internationally recognised government and Riyadh have failed to force the Houthis to retreat, and their calls for international help have so far gone unheeded.

On Saturday, the Houthis accused the Saudi air force of carrying out 27 raids in various areas of the country.