SANA’A: A Saudi-led coalition played no role in an attack reported to have killed 25 civilians in a Yemeni village yesterday, a Saudi official said.
Residents and medics said air strikes by helicopters from a Saudi-led alliance caried out an attack in the village of Bani Zela, in Yemen’s Red Sea border area with Saudi Arabia.
A Saudi official told Reuters: “This is totally false news. We deny it.”
“People were fleeing their homes as the helicopters pursued, They committed a massacre for no reason,” a resident who called himself Khaled told Reuters by phone.
An Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been pounding the Iran-allied Houthi militia in Yemen from the air for six months, trying to eject the group from the capital Sana’a and restore President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi to power.
About 100 Saudi military personnel have been killed along the border with Yemen since the Saudi-led campaign began in March, according to a Reuters count.
More than 4,500 Yemenis have also died since March, according to UN figures.
In the latest fighting, coalition air strikes pounded suspected Houthi targets in the capital around 25 times, residents said, and hit several other central provinces. Gulf troops and allied Yemeni tribesmen were fighting ground battles against militiamen and their allies in Yemen’s army in the desert province of Marib, 120km east of Sana’a yesterday.
The two sides exchanged artillery fire in a coalition push for the strategic foothills leading to Sana’a on Saturday, backed by Arab air strikes. At least 20 bodies from both sides were seen on the battlefield, a local official told Reuters. REUTERS
