Houthis say Saudi air strikes in Yemen killed at least 25 people

Media linked to Yemen's Houthi movement say Saudi air strikes have killed at least 25 people, including women and children, in the town of al-Shariyah, east of the capital Sanaa. The Houthis are an Iran-backed armed group that controls part of Yemen, including Sanaa. The Saudi-led coalition, which supports Yemen's internationally recognised government, has not commented on the reports.

Live footage on Al Masirah, a television station run by the Houthis, showed rescuers pulling bodies from the rubble of several buildings. The bodies of young children were among those recovered. The channel also showed injured people being carried to hospital on stretchers. The Houthi-run Saba news agency said Saudi Arabia carried out the attack. The claims are not independently confirmed in the source.

Renewed war

Saudi Arabia has led a coalition fighting the Houthis for more than a decade in support of the government. The war had been largely dormant for several years but reignited because of the Iran war. A truce began to unravel when Saudi Arabia struck Sanaa airport, controlled by the Houthis, to stop an Iranian plan to land a flight there. The Houthis then targeted Abha airport in Saudi Arabia and started hitting Saudi ships using the Red Sea as an alternative oil export route to the Strait of Hormuz.

On Friday, an attack on a market in Taiz province, the focus of much recent fighting, was reported to have killed 30 people. The Houthis blamed the Saudis, while government forces said the Houthis fired a missile at the site.

The United Nations says more than 1,600 people have been killed and over 300,000 displaced since fighting resumed. Hours before the al-Shariyah strike, the coalition said it had intercepted a missile heading for Riyadh. Houthi leader Mahdi al-Mashat has vowed revenge for the latest attacks.