Summary
- A Houthi health ministry spokesman says 27 people were killed and 36 wounded near Sanaa.
- Separately, Houthi officials report a Saudi strike killed at least 33 people elsewhere.
- Saudi Arabia, which leads the coalition fighting the Houthis, has not issued a response.
Houthi authorities in Yemen say airstrikes struck residential homes in a village close to the capital, Sanaa, killing at least 27 people and wounding 36 others, with women and children making up most of the casualties, according to a spokesman for the group's health ministry. The attack has not been independently verified, and there has been no comment from Saudi Arabia, which heads the military coalition that has conducted operations against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement for years.
In a separate reported incident, Houthi officials said at least 33 people were killed in another air raid attributed to Saudi forces, though this figure likewise has not been confirmed by Riyadh or any neutral party. The discrepancy between the two casualty reports underscores the difficulty of verifying events on the ground in Yemen, where access for independent journalists and international monitors remains severely limited.
The strikes come against the backdrop of a conflict that has persisted since 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition intervened after Houthi forces seized large parts of Yemen, including Sanaa, and pushed out the internationally recognized government. The war has produced one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises, with hundreds of thousands of deaths linked to fighting, disease and malnutrition, and millions of Yemenis still dependent on aid.
A fragile truce in recent years had reduced the intensity of hostilities, but sporadic strikes and ground clashes have continued, particularly as the Houthis have widened their role in the region by targeting shipping lanes in the Red Sea and trading fire with Israel and allied forces. Renewed reports of mass civilian casualties threaten to reignite international scrutiny of the coalition's conduct and could complicate efforts by the United Nations and regional mediators to revive a durable ceasefire.
No independent death toll has been established, and neither Saudi Arabia nor the broader coalition has acknowledged responsibility for either strike. Humanitarian organizations operating in Yemen are likely to seek access to the affected areas in the coming days to assess the damage and verify casualty figures, while pressure may grow on Riyadh to address the allegations publicly.