Saudi airstrikes and missile attacks in Yemen have killed at least 155 civilians and wounded 455 since Riyadh reignited the war by bombing the Sanaa International Airport on July 13, according to the Health Ministry within the Ansar Allah-led Yemeni government.
The vast majority of the civilian casualties were inflicted in September and October, following the start of the ground offensive launched by Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis.
The Yemen Data Project, an independent organization, previously reported that at least 66 civilians were killed by Saudi airstrikes in Yemen in September, and found the single deadliest incident was the September 7 Saudi bombing of the Central Correction Prison in the northern al-Jawf province, where 35 civilians, including one child, were killed.
Saudi airstrikes and the number of civilian casualties appear to have increased significantly in October. Health Ministry spokesman Dr. Anis Al-Asbahi said that in just 48 hours between October 16 and October 18, Saudi airstrikes killed 29 civilians and wounded 88.
Recent bombings have included strikes on multiple civilian homes. An October 18 strike on a civilian home in Yemen’s northern Saada province killed at least 10 people, including seven children and one woman. An October 12 Saudi bombing of a home in the al-Jawk province killed nine people, including five children.
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.
Despite the US support, the civilian casualties in the Saudi air campaign receive very little coverage in US and other Western media, while more of the focus is on the Ansar Allah attacks in Saudi Arabia, which have also caused civilian casualties, though not on the same scale. Most notably was the October 10 strike on the King Khalid Airport in Riyadh, which killed 13 civilians, including one US citizen. On Wednesday, Ansar Allah struck the King Fahd International Airport in the eastern city of Dammam, killing at least two people.
Ansar Allah has also been accused of killing civilians in its attacks on Taiz, which is encircled by the Ansar Allah-led Yemeni Armed Forces. Two teenage girls were reported killed by an Ansar Allah missile strike on a residential area of Taiz on Tuesday.
The World Health Organization has recorded 1,574 total deaths and 6,939 injuries in Yemen since the war escalated, but it’s unclear what the breakdown is between civilian and militant casualties, as heavy ground fighting between Ansar Allah and Saudi-backed forces has continued.
