93 Saudi Airstrikes Targets Yemen 24 Hours: Massacre in Taiz
By Staff, Agencies
Seven civilians were martyred and a girl was wounded in a Saudi aggression on two houses in Yemen’s southern Taiz governorate.
Committing a massacre, the Yemeni Health Ministry said Saudi warplanes targeted two houses in Jana’a village, part of the Al-Masahin and Al-Zaazie area of the Al-Shamayatayn district in Taiz Governorate.
In a statement, the Ministry added that Saudi warplanes were still flying over the area and preventing ambulance crews from recovering the dead and evacuating the wounded, which was worsening the humanitarian situation.
It further stressed that targeting residential homes and obstructing paramedics was a “flagrant violation” of international humanitarian law and part of a series of "war crimes" against civilians in Yemen.
The strikes were reported earlier by the Yemeni Saba News Agency, which said Saudi aircraft re-targeted the Al-Masahin area to prevent paramedics from reaching casualties.
In yet another massacre, two civilians were killed in a Saudi airstrike on the Al-Qahaf area in the southwest of Yemen’s Taiz governorate on Friday afternoon, according to the Ministry.
Earlier in the day, Saba reported that Saudi and Saudi-backed forces carried out dozens of airstrikes and artillery attacks across several Yemeni governorates, including strikes that killed and wounded civilians.
Saba reported Saudi artillery shelling of residential villages in the al-Thabit sub-district of Qatabir, a border district in the west of Saada governorate in northern Yemen.
In a related development, the Yemeni Armed Forces spokesperson, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, announced that Saudi warplanes carried out 93 air and missile attacks over 24 hours, targeting civilian sites in the capital, Sanaa, and the governorates of al-Jawf, Taiz, Saada, Marib, Dhamar, Hajjah, Ibb and Lahj.
Saree revealed that the aggression was carried out by F-15 and Typhoon warplanes that took off from the Khamis Mushait and Taif air bases, while missiles were launched from Najran and Jizan.
He put the total number of Saudi strikes since the start of the latest escalation at 3,689.
Separately, the Yemeni Armed Forces’ Military Media on Friday released footage that showed strikes on Saudi-backed forces and the destruction of several of their vehicles and armored vehicles in eastern Al-Jawf governorate.
The unit said the forces were overseen by a Saudi officer it identified as Fares Al-Shammari.
The YAF released similar footage days earlier of strikes on Saudi-backed forces on the Al-Fulayha and Al-Radhah fronts in southern Marib governorate, which were overseen by the same officer.
It also released the moment a Saudi AH-6i attack helicopter was shot down in Najran. The unit said the aircraft was hit by a locally made surface-to-air missile while conducting “hostile activity” opposite the Yemeni border.
Meanwhile, the Yemeni Armed Forces also renewed their warning to international airlines, aviation experts, employees, and travelers against operating flights to Saudi airspace and airports, calling them unsafe.
The warning excluded “the airports and airspace of the holy areas in Mecca and Medina.”
In a subsequent statement, Saree denied on Friday that the YAF carried out any operation toward Saudi territory, rejecting a Saudi claim that a drone was shot down in the airspace over Medina.
In a statement, Saree affirmed that the YAF have not launched any strike deep inside Saudi Arabia on Friday. He accused Riyadh of fabricating the claim as part of a long record of false accusations against Yemen and its Armed Forces, describing the allegations by the Saudi government as “moral bankruptcy”.
