Saudi airstrikes pounded Yemen’s Hodeidah province and the capital, Sanaa, on Saturday, killing at least 17 civilians as the US-backed bombing campaign continues to have a devastating impact on Yemeni civilians.
One strike on Saturday hit housing units for workers at a cement factory in the Sanaa Governorate, killing eight civilians, including four children and three women, according to the latest numbers from the Health Ministry within the Ansar Allah-led Yemeni government. Fifteen others, including eight children, were wounded.
A separate strike in the capital city of Sanaa hit a home belonging to a man identified as Fouad al-Shaabi, killing at least four people, including two children, according to a local source speaking to Yemen’s SABA news agency. A woman and a man were also injured by the bombing.
Another Saudi strike hit a civilian home in Hodeidah, a province on Yemen’s Red Sea coast. According to a source speaking to SABA, the home belonged to Abdul-Wahid al-Wasabi, and the Saudi strike killed him, his two wives, and two of their children. A girl, al-Wasabi’s daughter, was also reported wounded in the attack.
Saudi airstrikes against civilian targets continued on Sunday, with the Health Ministry reporting that Saudi warplanes bombed a maternity hospital in the Taiz province. The ministry said the strike caused “significant damage” but didn’t report any casualties.
“Targeting hospitals and health facilities constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and reveals the aggression’s determination to deprive the Yemeni people of their right to safe healthcare,” the Health Ministry wrote on Telegram.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen was notorious for bombing civilian areas during the war in Yemen from 2015 to 2022, and the current conflict has followed a similar pattern. The US is strongly backing the Saudi bombing campaign by providing intelligence and refueling Saudi warplanes, a form of support the US suspended back in 2018 due to pressure from Congress.
