SANAA: At least 24 civilians were killed in an air raid on Sunday on a market in northern Yemen, a medical official and witnesses said, blaming the Saudi-led coalition battling Yemeni rebels. Most of the casualties worked in the Mashnaq market in the rebel-controlled Saada province on the Saudi border, an official at a nearby hospital told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Witnesses said the market was a centre for trafficking in Qat, a leafy stimulant plant that is widely used in Yemen but illegal in Saudi Arabia. One of the witnesses said some of the casualties had "just returned from a trip across the border".

The Saudi-led Arab coalition has been carrying out air strikes in Yemen for more than two years against Huthi rebels.

Saada itself has come under heavy bombing since 2015, when the Arab coalition intervened to support the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in its fight against the Iran-backed Huthis.

More than 8,000 people have been killed in the past two years and tens of thousands wounded, according to the World Health Organisation.

Yemen’s Huthi rebels, who control a string of strategic ports along the Red Sea coastline, have sporadically launched rocket attacks across the border into Saudi Arabia. </s> Sanaa: At least 25 people were killed in a Saudi-led coalition airstrike which saw a warplane bomb a popular market in Yemen's northern province of Saada, media reported on Sunday.

The airstrike happened on Saturday evening and targeted al-Mashnak popular market at the centre of Shada district in Saada, Xinhua quoted a Saba news agency report — which cited an official — as saying.

The official said the victims were customers and owners of commercial shops. A number of others were critically injured.

The agency gave no further details, but said it will publish pictures of the scene later on Sunday.

Saada is the main stronghold of Shiite Houthi movement and where the group's leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi is based.

This is the latest in a series of airstrikes hitting Yemeni civilians since the war began in March 2015.

Ten days ago, four members of a family were killed when Saudi-led coalition warplanes hit a house in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, according to residents and medics.

Since March 2015, the coalition has been fighting the dominant Houthi rebels, who have seized control of most of northern Yemen, including Sanaa, to restore power to the internationally recognized yet expelled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The war has killed more than 10,000 people, half of them civilians, and displaced over two million others, according to the United Nations' humanitarian agencies. </s> At least 25 killed after two air raids hit al-Mashnaq market in Shada district in northwestern Yemen, an official says.

At least 25 Yemeni civilians have been killed by Saudi-led coalition air strike on a market in the northern Saada province, according to a local health official.

The director of the Houthi-run health department office in Saada said the aircraft conducted two raids on al-Mashnaq market in Shada district close to the Saudi border on Saturday.

"Rescue teams were unable to reach the area for some time for fear of being hit by artillery shelling of the area," the official, Dr Abdelilah al-Azzi, told Reuters news agency by telephone on Sunday.

Several Yemeni online news outlets carried similar reports of the bombing in Saada, which sits directly along the Saudi border.

Officials from the Saudi-led coalition could not immediately be reached for a comment on the report.

A Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out air strikes in the impoverished country for more than two years against Houthi rebels, who control vast swathes of the country.

The country has since been plunged into a civil war in which the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, is trying to roll back gains made by the Iran-aligned Houthi group that controls most of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.

In March, a Saudi-led coalition air strike killed 22 people and wounded dozens when it struck a market in western Yemen near the Red Sea fishing town of Khoukha.

Khoukha and the nearby city of Hodeidah are controlled by the Houthis who overran Sanaa in 2014 and moved south to Aden in 2015 forcing Hadi and his administration to flee into exile. Saudi-led coalition wrested back the control of Aden last year.

The Yemen war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than three million and ruined much of the impoverished country's infrastructure.

READ MORE: Who benefits from a weak and divided Yemen?

The Saudi-led coalition was formed in 2015 to fight the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

In December, the coalition acknowledged it had made "limited use" of British-made cluster bombs, but said it had stopped using them.

In March, the UN World Food Programme said that nearly half of Yemen's 22 provinces were on the verge of famine. </s> At least 24 Yemeni civilians were killed in an air raid Sunday on a market near the border with Saudi Arabia, a medical official said.

Most of the casualties worked in the Mashnaq market, which sells the mild narcotic qat, in the rebel-controlled northern Saada province, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Witnesses said the market was a centre for trafficking in Qat, a leafy stimulant plant that is widely used in Yemen but illegal in Saudi Arabia.

One of the witnesses said some of the casualties had "just returned from a trip across the border".

The Saudi-led Arab coalition has been carrying out air strikes in Yemen for more than two years against Shiite Huthi rebels.

Saada itself has come under heavy bombing since 2015, when the Arab coalition intervened to support the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in its fight against the Iran-backed Huthis.

More than 8,000 people have been killed in the past two years and tens of thousands wounded, according to the World Health Organization.

Yemen's Huthi rebels, who control a string of strategic ports along the Red Sea coastline, have sporadically launched rocket attacks across the border into Saudi Arabia.

In late January, the rebels attacked a Saudi warship in the Red Sea, killing two sailors.

In addition to widespread food and water shortages, since April the country has been in the grip of a rapidly spreading cholera epedemic. </s> SANAA, Yemen (AP) - A Houthi rebel news agency is reporting the death toll from an airstrike on a market by the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition in western Yemen has risen to 22 civilians.

SABA reported Saturday that eight people were also wounded Friday in the bombing of Khokha market in the western province of Hodeida. It added that jets continued to fly overhead, spreading fear among first responders and preventing them from rushing to rescue survivors. It was not immediately possible to verify the report.

Earlier, The Associated Press reported that at least a dozen civilians were killed.

The Saudi-led coalition began a campaign against the rebels in March 2015 in support of Yemen's internationally recognized government. The conflict has left more than 10,000 civilians dead and pushed the Arab world's poorest nation to the verge of famine. </s> Sanaa, Aug 3 (IANS) At least 20 people were killed and 50 others injured on Thursday when a Saudi-led coalition airstrike hit a popular fish market in Yemen’s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, a medical official told Xinhua.

The market is just about five meters away from the main gate of the al-Thawra Hospital, the official said by telephone on condition of anonymity.

“At least 20 were confirmed killed in an initial toll and up to 50 others wounded in the airstrike,” said the official.

Many bodies and injured people were still trapped inside the market as the rescue teams could not reach the other side of the market because of the continuing air and sea bombardments, he added.

The attack was the latest in a series of airstrikes launched by the coalition against Houthi targets in Yemen.

Last week, a Saudi-led coalition airstrike killed at least five people of a family in the country’s northern province of Saada.

The impoverished Arab country has been locked in a civil war since the Houthi rebels overran much of Yemen militarily and seized all northern provinces in 2014, including the capital Sanaa.

Saudi Arabia has led an Arab military coalition to intervene in the Yemen war since 2015 to support the government of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

More than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, have been killed in the war, and about 3 million have been displaced. </s> DUBAI (AFP) - A bomb attack in a market killed seven Yemeni civilians, including a photographer for a UAE television channel, in the government-controlled town of Mokha, medics and military sources said on Tuesday (Jan 29).

At least 20 people were wounded in the overnight blast in the Red Sea town, where pro-government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthi rebels are based.

The improvised explosive device was planted on a motorcycle parked in the middle of the market, an official in the pro-government forces told AFP.

Seven people were killed, the official and a hospital source said.

A photographer for Abu Dhabi TV, Mr Ziad al-Sharabi, was among the dead, the official Saba news agency quoted Information Minister Moammer al-Eryani as saying.

A correspondent for the same network, Mr Faisal Al-Zabhani, was among the wounded, he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Saba blamed it on the Iran-aligned Houthis.

The city of Mokha has enjoyed relative calm since coalition-backed government forces seized it from the rebels in July 2017.

Yemen's war escalated in March 2015, when President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia and the coalition intervened.

Since then, the conflict has killed nearly 10,000 people and unleashed the world's worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN.

UN aid officials say 80 per cent of the population - 24 million people - are in need of aid and nearly 10 million are just one step away from famine. </s> At least 29 children have been killed and 30 wounded in a Saudi-led coalition air strike in Yemen, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.

The children were travelling on a bus that was hit at a market in Dahyan, in the northern province of Saada. </s> 25 Killed in Saudi Air Strikes on Yemen Market – Health Official

At least 25 Yemenis were killed when Saudi-led coalition aircraft struck a market in the northern Saada province, a local health official said on Sunday, the latest in a string of deadly incidents in the 27-month-old conflict.

Officials from the Saudi-led coalition could not immediately be reached for a comment on the report.

Yemen has been torn by a civil war in which the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, is trying to roll back gains made by the Iran-aligned Houthi group which controls most of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.

The director of the Houthi-run Health Department office in Saada said the aircraft conducted two raids on al-Mashnaq market in Shada district, which is close to the Saudi border, on Saturday, killing 25 people and wounding at least one.

“Rescue teams were unable to reach the area for some time for fear of being hit by artillery shelling of the area,” the official, Dr Abdelilah al-Azzi, told Reuters by telephone.

Reuters could not independently confirm the report because the area is located very close to the frontline, but several Yemeni online news outlets carried a similar report.

A Saudi-led coalition air strike killed 22 people and wounded dozens when it struck a market in western Yemen near the Red Sea fishing town of Khoukha in March.

Khoukha and the nearby city of Hodeidah are controlled by the Houthis who overran Sanaa in 2014 and moved south to Aden in 2015 forcing Hadi and his administration to flee into exile.

The Yemen war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than three million and ruined much of the impoverished country’s infrastructure.

The Saudi-led coalition was formed in 2015 to fight the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh who have fired missiles into neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

In December, the coalition acknowledged it had made “limited use” of British-made cluster bombs, but said it had stopped using them.

Nearly half of Yemen’s 22 provinces are on the verge of famine, according to the U.N. World Food Programme.

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An air raid kills at least 24 civilians at a market in Houthi-held Saada Governorate, Yemen.