A woman inured by an air strike lies on a hospital bed in Hodeida, Yemen, on April 2, 2018.ABDULJABBAR ZEYAD/Reuters
An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition near Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hodeida killed at least 14 people on Monday, according to a senior health official.
The airstrike hit a compound housing displaced people in the town of al-Hami, according to Walid al-Emmad, the deputy health minister. He says at least eight women and five girls were among those killed.
The Saudi-led coalition has been at war with Iran-allied Houthi rebels for more than three years, a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people and devastated the Arab world’s poorest country. Saudi-led airstrikes have killed thousands of civilians and destroyed hospitals, schools and markets.
A leading human rights group on Monday called on Saudi Arabia to lift its blockade on Yemen, and for the Houthis to stop firing missiles across the border into the kingdom. “The Saudis can’t use Houthi rockets to justify impeding life-saving goods for Yemen’s civilian population,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, the Mideast director for Human Rights Watch.
The coalition has imposed a blockade on the country since 2015.
The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa, fired seven ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia on March 26, killing one person. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly accused Iran of supplying the rebels with missiles and other arms, accusations denied by Tehran.