Sunday, May 24, 2020

3 Civilians Killed as Saudi-led Warplanes Hit Northern Yemen on Eid al-Fitr
Sunday, 24 May 2020 5:39 PM
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Smoke billows following an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, on February 23, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

At least three civilian have been killed in air raids by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen’s mountainous northwestern province of Sa’ada as people were celebrating Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported on Sunday afternoon that Saudi-led military aircraft hit a highway in Maran area of the Haydan district, leaving three people dead and as many injured.

Later in the day, an 8-year-old boy sustained injuries when Saudi-backed militiamen loyal to Yemen's former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, shelled a residential area in the al-Durayhimi district of the western Yemeni coastal province of Hudaydah.

Separately, the spokesman for Yemen’s Armed Forces stated that Saudi-led warplanes had launched 48 air raids against various targets across the impoverished and crisis-plagued Arab country over the past few hours.

Brigadier General Yahya Saree said nine airstrikes were launched in the Majzar district of Yemen’s central province of Ma’rib, whilst Saudi-led jets pounded different neighborhoods in the northern Yemeni province of al-Jawf on six occasions.

He went on say that Saudi-led jets carried out 15 airstrikes against Abs and Harad districts in Yemen’s northern province of Hajjah. A total of 18 raids were mounted by Saudi-led aircraft against Maran, Malahit and Baqim districts of Sa’ada province.

Saree, however, did not provide any information about possible casualties and the extent of damage caused.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in order to bring Hadi back to power and crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past five years.

More than half of Yemen’s hospitals and clinics have been destroyed or closed during the war by the Saudi-led coalition, which is supported militarily by the UK, US and other Western nations.

At least 80 percent of the 28 million-strong population is also reliant on aid to survive in what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

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