Six members of same family killed in Saudi strike: Ansarullah
Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement on Tuesday said a Saudi airstrike killed six members of the same family as fighting intensifies in the impoverished country’s resurgent war.
The bombing of a village in Hajjah governorate, bordering Saudi Arabia, “caused the deaths of six people from the same family” including the mother, father and four children aged three to eight, the Health Ministry in Sana’a said.
Fighting across Yemen has killed more than 270 Yemeni troops backed by Riyadh and Ansarullah’s fighters over the past day, sources on both sides told AFP on Tuesday.
Fighting has intensified in Yemen since the Saudi-backed government in south launched a counter-offensive aimed at recovering territory seized by resistance fighters last month.
The focus of the violence is on southwest Yemen, around the Bab al-Mandab strait that is crucial to global energy flows.
Ansarullah also said it launched an attack on the Saudi capital’s main airport and on Tuesday denied being pushed back by Saudi-backed forces.
The Ansarullah’s statements come as Yemen’s Saudi-backed forces claimed it had removed the resistance group from areas around the Bab al-Mandab strait, a Red Sea chokepoint, and the port city of Mocha.
Claims by both sides in Yemen have been impossible to independently verify, with the situation on the ground moving fast and access for journalists difficult.
After a four-year ceasefire, Yemen’s long-running conflict has reignited during the Middle East war, which has roiled world energy markets and snarled trade routes.
Ansarullah’s military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group still held all territory seized last month when they swept through coastal areas along the Red Sea oil-and-cargo route.
Resistance fighters “have full control over all their advances on the ground", he posted on Telegram. Saree said they had carried out dozens of strikes in the past few hours targeting Saudi-backed forces in Yemen’s Al-Jawf and Marib regions, while also attacking Taiz governorate.
On Monday, Ansarullah said it had struck Riyadh airport and a refinery belonging to Saudi state oil giant Aramco.