HODEIDAH, Yemen - An air strike by the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen killed 12 civilians, including seven children, in the costal city of Hodeidah on Monday, medics and a witness said.



Medics and a witness who saw the wreckage said the air strike had destroyed a house in al-Hali district, where displaced civilians from other provinces were settled.



The 12 victims were all from the same family, they said.



A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition could not immediately be reached for comment.



Hodeidah is home to the impoverished country's biggest port from where most of the humanitarian aid reaches millions of civilians on the brink of famine. The operation of port, controlled by the Iran-aligned Houthis, was not affected by the air strike.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened in a civil war in Yemen in 2015 against the Houthis to restore the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.The alliance, which includes other Sunni Muslim states, has conducted thousands of air strikes targeting Houthi fighters and has often hit civilian areas, although it denies ever doing so intentionally.The war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than 2 million and driven the country - already the poorest on the Arabian Peninsula - to the verge of famine. </s> HODEIDAH, Yemen: An air strike by the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen killed 12 civilians, including seven children, in the costal city of Hodeidah on Monday, medics and a witness said.

Medics and a witness who saw the wreckage said the air strike had destroyed a house in al-Hali district, where displaced civilians from other provinces were settled.

The 12 victims were all from the same family, they said.

A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition told Reuters: "We take this report very seriously and it will be fully investigated as all reports of this nature are - using an internationally approved, independent process. Whilst this is ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further."

Hodeidah is home to the impoverished country's biggest port from where most of the humanitarian aid reaches millions of civilians on the brink of famine. The operation of port, controlled by the Iran-aligned Houthis, was not affected by the air strike.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened in a civil war in Yemen in 2015 against the Houthis to restore the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The alliance, which includes other Sunni Muslim states, has conducted thousands of air strikes targeting Houthi fighters and has often hit civilian areas, although it denies ever doing so intentionally.

The war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than 2 million and driven the country - already the poorest on the Arabian Peninsula - to the verge of famine. </s> HODEIDAH, Yemen (Reuters) - An air strike by the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen killed 12 civilians on Monday in the coastal city of Hodeidah, medics and a witness said, and the Houthi rebels later targeted Saudi Arabia’s southern border area with a missile.

Medics and a civilian who saw the wreckage said the air strike had destroyed a house in the al-Hali district, where displaced civilians from other provinces were settled.

The 12 victims were all from the same family including seven children, they said.

A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition said: “We take this report very seriously and it will be fully investigated as all reports of this nature are - using an internationally approved, independent process. Whilst this is ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

Hodeidah is home to the impoverished country’s biggest port from where most of the humanitarian aid reaches millions of civilians on the brink of famine. The operation of the port, controlled by the Iran-aligned Houthis, was not affected by the air strike.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened in a civil war in Yemen in 2015 against the Houthis to restore the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The alliance, which includes other Sunni Muslim states, has conducted thousands of air strikes targeting Houthi fighters and has often hit civilian areas, although it denies ever doing so intentionally.

The war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than 2 million and driven the country - already the poorest on the Arabian Peninsula - to the verge of famine.

The Houthis, in turn, have launched rockets into Saudi territory with mixed results.

On Monday, a missile targeted the border area of Dhahran al-Janub. The coalition said it fell 1.75 km inside Yemen, but the Houthi-run Saba news agency said it hit a Saudi military base causing unspecified casualties. Reuters was unable to independently verify those claims.

Last week the Houthis launched a flurry of missiles which Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted over Riyadh. Debris from the missiles fell on a home, killing one person.

Rights watchdog Human Rights Watch on Monday said the Houthi attack had violated the laws of war by indiscriminately targeting populated areas.

“The Houthis should immediately stop their indiscriminate missile attacks on populated areas of Saudi Arabia,” said HRW’s Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson.

“But just as unlawful coalition air strikes don’t justify the Houthis’ indiscriminate attacks, the Saudis can’t use Houthi rockets to justify impeding life-saving goods for Yemen’s civilian population.”

When the Houthis fired missiles at Riyadh last November, the coalition responded by shutting Yemen’s airports and ports. The United Nations said that blockade raised the danger of mass starvation, and it was partially lifted. </s> JEDDAH: A coalition jet fighter on a mission in Yemen was ‘intercepted’ by hostile fire but managed to return safe to base, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting for the Legitimacy in Yemen said on Wednesday.

Col. Staff Turki Al-Turki said the incident, which happened at 3:48 p.m. on Wednesday, saw a coalition fighter jet targeted by a hostile missile launched from Yemen’s Saada airport. The jet managed to return fire as well as complete its mission, the Saudi Press Agency reported. 

Al-Turki said the missile used was not part of the Yemeni air defense capabilities as they have been destroyed by the coalition, but evidence that the Iranian regime is continuing to smuggle "qualitative field capabilities" to the Houthis in a flagrant challenge to the world community resolutions, including UN Resolution No. 2216.

He said that the possession of new air defense missiles at the hands of the terror organizations is considered a serious development and a direct threat to air navigation and relief and humanitarian travel. </s> A Yemeni rebel attack on a civilian airport in southern Saudi Arabia killed a Syrian national and wounded 21 other civilians Sunday, the Riyadh-led coalition said, in a new escalation following a series of strikes on the site.

The attack on Abha Airport, which the coalition said left a McDonalds outlet at the site littered with shattered glass and damaged 18 vehicles, comes amid spiraling regional tensions with Iran.

The escalation of attacks by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels on Saudi cities threatens a hard-won UN-sponsored ceasefire deal for the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, war-ravaged Yemen's main conduit for humanitarian aid.

"A terrorist attack by the Iran-backed Houthi militia on Abha airport... killed a Syrian resident and wounded 21 civilians," the coalition said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The wounded -- from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, India and Bangladesh -- also included three women and two children who had been taken to hospital for treatment, the coalition said.

It did not provide details on how the airport was attacked, but Iran-aligned Houthi rebels have repeatedly struck the civilian facility this month with drones and missiles.

Earlier on Sunday, the rebels' Al-Masirah TV said they had targeted Abha and Jizan airports in the south of the kingdom with drones.

The coalition did not confirm the attack on Jizan airport.

Abha Airport authorities said on Twitter that air traffic had resumed and operations were running normally, without saying how long they were disrupted.

On June 12, a rebel missile attack on Abha airport wounded 26 civilians, drawing promises of "stern action" from the coalition.

Human Rights Watch denounced the strike as an apparent "war crime", urging the Houthis to immediately stop all attacks on civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.

The latest raids come amid spiraling regional tensions after Washington -- a key ally of Riyadh -- accused Iran of shooting down a US drone and carrying out attacks on oil tankers in the strategic Gulf of Oman.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Britain and the U.S., in a joint statement published on Saudi state media on Sunday, voiced alarm over escalating regional tensions and the "dangers posed by Iranian destabilizing activity".

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly accused Iran of supplying sophisticated weapons to Huthi rebels, a charge Tehran denies.

Following recent attacks, Saudi state media have reported an intensification of coalition air raids on rebel positions in the northern Yemeni province of Hajjah and the Houthi-held capital Sanaa.

The coalition intervened in support of the Yemeni government in 2015 when President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled into Saudi exile as the rebels closed in on his last remaining territory in and around second city Aden.

Since then, the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, many of them civilians, relief agencies say.

It has triggered what the U.N. describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 24 million Yemenis -- more than two-thirds of the population -- in need of aid.

On Thursday the Saudi campaign in Yemen suffered a double blow as U.S. lawmakers voted to block Trump's arms sales to Riyadh, just hours after Britain temporarily suspended similar sales. </s> DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia says one person has been killed and seven others wounded in an attack by Yemeni rebels on an airport in the kingdom’s south.

The spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition at war in Yemen against the rebel Houthis was quoted in the state-run Saudi Press Agency as saying the airport in Abha was struck shortly after 9 p.m. local time on Sunday.

Col. Turki al-Maliki did not say what type of weapon was used in the attack. The Saudi Press Agency reported that a Syrian resident of Saudi Arabia had been killed.

A Houthi spokesman, Yahia al-Sarie, said earlier Sunday the rebels had launched drone attacks on Saudi airports in Abha and Jizan.

The attack comes less that two weeks after the airport in Abha was attacked by a Houthi cruise missile, wounding 26 passengers inside. </s> DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Saudi Arabia says one person has been killed and seven others wounded in an attack by Yemeni rebels on an airport in the kingdom's south.

The spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition at war in Yemen against the rebel Houthis was quoted in the state-run Saudi Press Agency as saying the airport in Abha was struck shortly after 9 p.m. local time on Sunday.

Col. Turki al-Maliki did not say what type of weapon was used in the attack. The Saudi Press Agency reported that a Syrian resident of Saudi Arabia had been killed.

A Houthi spokesman, Yahia al-Sarie, said earlier Sunday the rebels had launched drone attacks on Saudi airports in Abha and Jizan.

The attack comes less that two weeks after the airport in Abha was attacked by a Houthi cruise missile, wounding 26 passengers inside. </s> (Reuters) - Twenty six people were killed and 35 others were wounded in Saudi-led coalition air strikes on the fishing port and fish market in the Yemeni city of Hodeidah, Yemeni medical sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia and Sunni Muslim allies have been fighting in Yemen for three years against the Iran-aligned Houthis, who control much of north Yemen including the capital Sanaa and drove a Saudi-backed government into exile in 2014.

There was no immediate comment from the Saudi-led coalition. </s> Houthis kill 1, wound 7 in attack on airport in Saudi Arabia

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia says one person has been killed and seven others wounded in an attack by Yemeni rebels on an airport in the kingdom's south.

The spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition at war in Yemen against the rebel Houthis was quoted in the state-run Saudi Press Agency as saying the airport in Abha was struck shortly after 9 p.m. local time on Sunday.

Col. Turki al-Maliki did not say what type of weapon was used in the attack. The Saudi Press Agency reported that a Syrian resident of Saudi Arabia had been killed.

A Houthi spokesman, Yahia al-Sarie, said earlier Sunday the rebels had launched drone attacks on Saudi airports in Abha and Jizan.

The attack comes less that two weeks after the airport in Abha was attacked by a Houthi cruise missile, wounding 26 passengers inside.
Saudi aircraft attack Houthi targets in residential areas of Hudaydah and Sa'dah, Yemen, killing at least seven civilians.