Saudi airstrikes hit homes in Yemen’s southwestern Taiz province, killing at least 12 civilians, according to the Health Ministry within the Ansar Allah-led government, as the US-backed bombing campaign continues to have a devastating impact on Yemen’s civilian population.
The Health Ministry said that the strikes targeted two homes belonging to the families of Ibrahim Saeed Mohammed Ahmed al-Qawz and al-Ra’abi Saeed Mohammed Ahmed al-Qawz in the al-Barh area of Taiz’s Maqbanah district. It said that three others were critically wounded, and footage from Al Masirah TV shows a child and an adult male being treated for severe injuries at a hospital.
The strikes mark the second large-scale Saudi massacre of civilians within two days. On Wednesday, Saudi airstrikes hit a market and gas station in Yemen’s northern al-Jawf province, killing at least 14 civilians.
“In less than 24 hours, Saudi-led coalition airstrikes committed two horrific massacres against civilians in the governorates of al-Jawf and Taiz, targeting civilian homes and markets during peak hours,” the Health Ministry wrote on Telegram, putting the death toll in the two provinces over 24 hours at 27.
The Saudi bombing campaign is strongly supported by both the US, which has up to 200 military advisors in Saudi Arabia to provide intelligence and targeting support for the airstrikes and recently resumed refueling Saudi warplanes, a form of support the US cut off back in 2018 due to pressure from Congress.
Fighting continues on the ground in Yemen, and civilians are also suffering in Taiz city, which his under a siege imposed by Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis. Reuters reported on Thursday that a pregnant woman was hit by a bullet in a village just outside the city and that hospitals have also been hit by shelling and are facing severe shortages.
“The bullet entered from the side and is now lodged near the spine. They (the doctors) couldn’t remove it because of the fetus,” the woman, Amal al-Sabri, told Reuters. “Now I am giving up the fetus.”
