Six civilians, including two children and a woman, wounded by shelling in Yemen’s Taiz

Six civilians, including two children and a woman, were wounded by artillery shelling of residential neighbourhoods in the centre of Taiz, Yemen’s second-largest city, as Al Jazeera reports, citing the Yemeni state agency Saba.

According to local sources cited by Saba, the shelling, attributed to the Iran-backed Houthi group, hit the Old Airport and Wadi al-Qadi areas in the city centre.

Taiz has been the epicentre of the fiercest fighting in Yemen for weeks, with government forces and the Houthis facing off for control of strategic points around the city. The shelling of residential neighbourhoods comes at a moment when diplomatic efforts to reduce tensions in the country are stalled and the fighting is expanding.

Humanitarian organisations have repeatedly warned that civilians are paying the highest price of the escalation, with tens of thousands of people displaced by the fighting in Taiz province during September alone — and with Yemen’s health system, according to Doctors Without Borders, risking going “beyond the point of recovery”.