16 Killed, Including Five Civilians, as Saudis Strike Yemen’s Taiz

On Saturday night, Saudis carried out an airstrike effort against Houthi vehicles passing through rural Taiz. They struck just as the vehicles were passing through a civilian area.

This led to an ugly bombardment, destroying part of the vehicle convoy, and killing 16 people, five of them were innocent civilians. Eight more civilians were wounded in the explosions.

This incident is like so many others in the Yemen War, with Saudi attacks of opportunity ignoring the possibility of civilian casualties. This is why six years into the war, the civilian toll is enormous.

Saudis neither denied the civilian deaths nor defended them. The Houthis, by contrast, claimed that more civilians were killed than had been reported, suggesting as many as 16 civilians may have been slain.