Saudi airstrikes hit civilian homes in the Bani Hashish District of Yemen’s Sanaa province on Saturday, killing at least 40 people and injuring 40 more, according to the Health Ministry within the Sanaa-based Ansar Allah-led Yemeni government.
The death toll makes the attack the worst civilian massacre committed by the US-backed Saudi coalition since Riyadh reignited the war back in July by bombing the Sanaa International Airport.
According to Health Ministry spokesman Dr. Anis al-Asbahi, who announced the updated death toll on Sunday, the majority of the casualties were women and children. An earlier statement that put the death toll at 33 said that the dead included eight children and 13 women.
The strike came a day after Ansar Allah, the Houthis, said that Saudi airstrikes hit a crowded market in the southwestern Taiz province, killing at least 30 people. The Saudi-backed Yemeni government claimed the market was hit by Houthi ballistic missiles, but it provided no evidence for the claim, and the Saudi bombing campaign has been killing scores of civilians.
According to the Yemen Data Project, the Saudi bombing campaign killed at least 140 civilians and wounded 286 in October, making it the worst month for civilian harm from Saudi airstrikes in Yemen since December 2017.
The YDP also reported that at least 66 civilians were killed and 90 were wounded by Saudi airstrikes in September, when the war significantly escalated as Ansar Allah began a ground offensive and made rapid gains. While a large number of civilians are being killed, the Saudi airstrikes have done nothing to roll back Ansar Allah’s gains.
The Saudi bombing campaign is strongly backed by the US, which has up to 200 military advisors deployed in Saudi Arabia to provide intelligence and targeting support. The US has also resumed refueling Saudi warplanes, a form of support that was cut off back in 2018.
