Rebels: 54 Yemeni Civilians Slain in Latest Saudi Strikes

Yemeni Parliament Presses Govt to Reduce Civilian Deaths

According to a spokesman for Northern Yemen’s Houthi rebels, a series of air strikes by Saudi warplanes against the Razeh district hit several civilian houses, killing at least 54 civilians.

The Saudi government, which has been up-front about its assorted attacks on the region in the past few weeks, denied the current raid, insisting that it was only launching attacks on its side of the ill-defined border recently.

Yemen is currently engaged in multiple conflicts in different regions of the country, including the Shi’ites in the north, the separatist movement in the formerly Communist South Yemen, and the al-Qaeda forces which the US targeted in last week’s American air strikes.

The Yemeni parliament today took the Saleh government to task for its own indiscriminate attacks, noting that one of its recent saids on an “al-Qaeda” camp netted only 10 al-Qaeda suspects and 49 dead civilians.

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.