At least four Yemeni civilians have been killed and nearly a dozen others wounded in a fresh wave of Saudi aerial attacks against its impoverished and conflict-plagued neighbor.
Local sources told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that four people lost their lives and ten others sustained injuries, when Saudi fighter jets carried out two airstrikes against a residential area in the Jabal al-Marhab mountainous region of Yemen’s northwestern province of Amran on Saturday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, Saudi warplanes launched six air raids against Harad and Midi districts in the northwestern province of Hajjah, located approximately 130 kilometers northwest of the capital Sana’a. There were no immediate reports of casualties available though.
Three separate Saudi airstrikes were also carried out against al-Aqabah Asfal Maran area in the Haydan district of Yemen’s northwestern mountainous region of Sa’ada.
Yemeni army forces, allies hit back
Meanwhile, Yemeni army forces and fighters from allied Popular Committees have responded to Riyadh’s air raids, firing a barrage of artillery shells at Jahfan military camp in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern border region of Jizan.
Yemeni soldiers and their allies also targeted Hajer camp in the Asir region in southwestern Saudi Arabia, but no casualties were reported.
Additionally, scores of Saudi troopers were injured after Yemeni soldiers and fighters from Popular Committees hit al-Moqran military base in Jizan.
Nearly two dozen Saudi mercenaries killed in Ta’izz
Separately, at least 20 Saudi-backed militiamen loyal to resigned Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi were killed on Saturday after Yemeni soldiers and their allies mounted an offensive in the al-Omari region of Dhubab district, which lies in the southwestern Yemeni province of Ta'izz.
The United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, says the Saudi military campaign has claimed the lives of 10,000 Yemenis and left 40,000 others wounded.
McGoldrick told reporters in Sana’a earlier this year that the figure was based on casualty counts given by health facilities and that the actual number might be higher.
On February 23, Yemen’s Legal Center for Rights and Development, an independent monitoring group, put the civilian death toll in the war-torn Arab country at 12,041.
The fatalities, it said, comprise 2,568 children and 1,870 women.
