Saudi Airstrikes Kill 59 in Northern Yemen, Mostly Civilians

10 Civilians Killed in Airstrike Against Oil Trucks

Starting with overnight attacks against Dahyan, near the northern city of Saada, where they destroyed an ambulance and killed a Doctors Without Borders driver, Saudi warplanes have launched a flurry of airstrikes in the past 24 hours, killing at least 59 people, overwhelmingly civilians.

The strikes around Saada saw the Saudi planes attack an ambulance taking wounded to a hospital in a Shi’ite area,, and then subsequent strikes that killed more people trying to rescue people from the burning ambulance. The death toll in these incidents is up to 26.

22 other people were killed in strikes against Nahdeen, Dhamar, Taiz, and Jawf, where they targeted sites they believed housed weapons caches or were hosting meetings of the Shi’ite rebels.

Finally, 10 more civilians were killed in al-Hodeida, the site of yesterday’s airstrikes against an oil delivery port. These 10 were killed when airstrikes targeted oil trucks driving away from the port to take “smuggled oil” out of the city.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.