A Saudi-led coalition airstrike at a fruit-and-vegetable market near Yemen’s flashpoint Red Sea port of Hodeida killed at least 21 civilians, including children, the U.N. humanitarian aid agency said Thursday.
Wednesday’s attack came amid mounting fears of a fresh coalition assault on Hodeida — a city that has been the lifeline for international aid deliveries to Yemen, ravaged by a brutal 3 ½-year war between the Saudi-led alliance and Shite rebels known as Houthis.
The coalition has been trying to wrest Hodeida from the Iran-backed rebels but the campaign, like the rest of Yemen’s war, had fallen into a stalemate.
The airstrike, which hit a vegetable packaging facility in the outdoor market in the town of Bayt el-Faqih, just south of Hodeida, also wounded 10 people. Initial reports had five dead but the death toll steadily climbed overnight.The director of the Bayt el-Faqih hospital, Abdullah Shahawi, said all the victims were civilians and that at least two children were among the dead.
In the capital, Saana, the rebel-run Al Masirah TV reported a lower casualty figure, saying at least 20 people died and 10 were wounded. The different death tolls could not immediately be resolved.
Also on Wednesday, three more people were killed and six injured when strikes hit three vehicles on July 7 road in Al Hali District in Hodeida province, the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement Thursday.
“Civilians are paying a shocking price because of this conflict,” said U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen Lise Grande. “This is the third time this month that fighting has caused mass casualties in Hodeida.”Video footage obtained by The Associated Press showed the aftermath of the strike, with body parts lying scattered across the market and coffins lined up in the hospital. The video could not be independently confirmed but it corresponded to events reported by the AP. A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition did not respond to multiple phone calls and messages seeking comment.
Journalists have been barred from visiting rebel-held areas in Hodeida, including where Wednesday’s airstrike took place. Yemeni security officials confirmed the strike but didn’t know what the intended target was.
It’s not uncommon for coalition jets to hit civilians and wedding parties, funerals, residential homes and hospitals have been bombed in the past. In August, an airstrike hit a bus carrying children on their way to school in northern Yemen, killing more than 40.
