More than 50 people have been killed in Yemen over the past 24 hours, in what appeared to be one of the deadliest stretches since the conflict between the Iran-backed Houthis and the government of Yemen backed by Saudi Arabia reignited in recent months.
Houthi officials said airstrikes tore through the village of al-Shariya, in the Bani Hushaysh district east of the capital, Sanaa, on Saturday. Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run Health Ministry, said at least 27 people were killed and 30 others wounded, most of them women and children, and blamed Saudi warplanes. The Saudi government did not immediately respond to questions about the strikes.
The attack in Sanaa took place a day after strikes on a crowded market in Taiz Province killed at least 30 people, according to a Houthi-run news agency. The warring parties traded blame for the attack. The authorities in government-held Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, said the Houthis were responsible, but officials for the Iran-backed group blamed Saudi Arabia.
The past few days’ high toll underscores the growing ferocity of the war since it resumed in August. Almost 1,800 people had been killed by the end of October and more than 300,000 people had been displaced, the World Health Organization said last week. Aid agencies have warned that hospitals in Yemen are running short of medical supplies.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned that the fighting is returning to the levels seen a decade ago, before a cease-fire was signed in 2022. A Saudi-led coalition waged a yearslong air campaign against the Houthis after the group seized control of Sanaa and ousted the government in 2014. The conflict contributed to hundreds of thousands of deaths from violence, hunger and disease, causing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Independently verifying casualties inside Yemen is difficult. The Houthis require journalists to obtain permits before visiting strike sites, and Saudi officials have disclosed little about a campaign. Each side has repeatedly accused the other of targeting civilians.
The war resumed when the fragile truce unraveled over the summer after the Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out an airstrike on Sanaa’s airport.
Since then, the Houthis have taken control of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and threatened Saudi shipping through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a key trade route. A Saudi-led bombing campaign has not shifted the Houthis from the territory they have held in northern Yemen or on the Red Sea.
The Houthis have also struck deep inside Saudi Arabia. The Saudi-led coalition said on Saturday that it had intercepted and destroyed a Houthi cruise missile aimed at the Riyadh region, the latest attack in a monthslong barrage that has included a hit on the main international airport in the Saudi capital, killing more than a dozen people and wounding hundreds. That attack forced Saudi Arabia to postpone a string of marquee events, including its flagship investment conference and a summit with European leaders.
Houthi officials vowed retaliation for the latest deaths. Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesman, said the group would avenge their dead “against the killer of children and women.”
Saeed Al-Batati contributed reporting from al-Mukalla, Yemen.
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