Several Saudi airstrikes in and around the northern Yemeni city of Saada have killed at least 18 people, all of them civilians, including one ambulance driver who worked for Doctors Without Borders, according to a statement issued by the group.
The ambulance driver was killed in the Dhayan District when Saudi planes attacked and destroyed his ambulance, killing him and everyone inside. Subsequent strikes were launched at the site killing a number of other people who tried to rescue people from the burning ambulance.
Not far from the Saudi border, Saada is historically the main city of the Shi’ite Houthi movement, and has repeatedly been the target of Saudi airstrikes. The Houthis control virtually all of northern Yemen at this point, and the Saudis have been at war with them for nine months.
This incident adds to the alarming number of times Saudi warplanes have attacked medical personnel in Yemen, including destroying at least three Doctors Without Borders hospitals in the past three months.