Saudi warplanes were active again over the weekend, targeting multiple cities held by the Shi’ite Houthi forces. As is so often the case in their war against Yemen, the casualties are largely civilian in nature, with at least 16 more civilians killed in attacks on Saturday alone.
The biggest of the Saturday incidents was in the contested city of Taiz, where warplanes destroyed a house, killing 10 members of the same family. Other civilians were killed in the capital city of Sanaa, and the northern city of Sadaa.
Large civilian tolls in the 5-month-long Saudi war have become incredibly commonplace, and hardly a day goes by that Saudi warplanes aren’t destroying a honey farm or a bottling plant, or just the random homes of civilians in residential districts of cities held by the Houthis.
Earlier in the war, the Saudis were quick with an excuse after such an incident, usually claiming the buildings destroyed were being used as military sites, despite being full of civilians. In more recent weeks, however, they’ve dropped the facade and simply continue bombing.
Shi’ite towns have been targeted so regularly that in many cases, the population has fled into nearby caves or south into ramshackle shelters, hoping to wait out what was supposed to be a brief war. Unfortunately for them, the war drags on, and Saudi warplanes have hit the refugee camps with almost the regularity that they hit everything else.