Saudi airstrikes hit a market in Yemen’s Taiz province on Sunday, killing at least seven people and wounding 40, including five children, according to Ansar Allah officials and Yemeni media reports.
Footage from Yemen’s Al Masirah TV shows the aftermath of the strike, which hit several shops, and Yemeni civilians being treated for their wounds.
The Health Ministry within the Ansar Allah-led Yemeni government said that it condemned “this horrific crime committed by Saudi enemy aircraft through their direct and deliberate targeting of civilian objects.”
Sources from the Saudi-backed Yemeni government, whose leadership is based in Riyadh, claimed in comments to Reuters that Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, set up a military camp in the area. The Saudi-backed Yemeni government claimed that it carried out a strike targeting Ansar Allah in the area, but it hasn’t had a real air force since Ansar Allah took control of Sanaa in 2014, and it relies on Saudi Arabia for air power.
Saudi Arabia was notorious for frequently hitting civilian targets during its war against Ansar Allah from 2015 to 2022, and there have been an increasing number of civilian casualties since the war was reignited by the July 13 Saudi airstrikes that targeted the Sanaa International Airport.
The US strongly backs Saudi Arabia’s air campaign in Yemen by providing intelligence and targeting support, plus the fact that Saudi Arabia uses US-made F-15 fighter jets and US-provided bombs to carry out many of the strikes. So far, the US has refrained from entering the war directly, and a ceasefire reached between the US and Ansar Allah in May 2025 remains in effect.
Ansar Allah has continued launching missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, and more are expected following the market bombing. “This bloodshed, unjustly and aggressively spilled in the Mawiyah market in Taiz Governorate, will have dire consequences for the Saudi aggressors, God willing,” Ansar Allah military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement on the attack, which also said the strikes were carried out by an F-15.
In a separate statement, Saree said that over the past 24 hours, Saudi forces “launched 26 airstrikes using F-15 fighter jets that took off from Khamis Mushait Air Base, targeting the provinces of Taiz, Al-Jawf, Marib, Dhamar, and Saada.”
“These attacks resulted in dozens of civilian casualties, bringing the total number of Saudi-led airstrikes and missile attacks since the escalation began to 1,085,” Saree added.
