Saudi-led Coalition Claims Yemen Market Legitimate Target after Deadly Strike

The Saudi-led coalition claims its recent bloody airstrike on a market in Yemen’s northern province of Sa’ada that killed at least 26 people was carried out on a “legitimate” military target.

After reviewing the Wednesday attack on a hotel and an adjoining market in Sahar district, the coalition issued a statement on Saturday, claiming the target was the gathering point for some Houthi fighters.

Saudi-led airstrikes continue to claim more civilian lives across Yemen.

 Three Yemenis were killed and one was injured during two Saudi airstrikes on al-Mukha district in the southwestern province of Ta’izz on Saturday.

In another airstrike on a residential area in al-Dhahir district in the northwestern province of Sa’ada, one woman was killed and another was wounded.

The Saudi warplanes also launched several airstrikes on Hayfan district in Ta’izz province and on Qabbaytah district in the southwestern province of Lahij.

Yemeni ballistic attack on airport near Riyadh

In a separate development on Saturday, Yemeni sources said the country’s army had hit King Khalid International Airport near Riyadh with a ballistic missile.

Reports said Saudi firefighters rushed to the scene to extinguish the fire at the airport.

Saudi sources said the army had intercepted the Yemeni ballistic missile. 

Meanwhile, the Yemeni army and popular forces targeted military positions inside Saudi Arabia.

According to Yemen’s al-Masirah television network, Yemeni snipers killed two Saudi soldiers in separate Saudi bases in the southwestern regions of Jizan and Najran.

The Yemeni forces also launched mortar attacks against three other Saudi bases in Jizan.

Meanwhile, Yemeni forces killed and injured several Saudi-led mercenaries in Ma’rib and Ta’izz provinces.

Saudi Arabia and a coalition of its allies have been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015, in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of the Riyadh regime.

Local Yemeni sources have put the death toll from Saudi airstrikes at over 14,000 people.

Last month, the United Nations blacklisted the coalition for infanticide during its war on Yemen.

The annual blacklist, released by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on October 5, said the actions of the Riyadh-led alliance in Yemen “objectively led to that party being listed for the killing and maiming of children.”

R.S

Press TV, Iran Daily