Saudi-Led Raids Kill More Yemenis, Including Two Whole Families

The entire members of two Yemeni families have been killed in separate Saudi Arabian-led airstrikes on residential areas in Yemen.

Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported that all members of a family, including the father, mother, and their two children, were killed when their house was targeted in a Saudi-led airstrike in the Azreqein neighborhood in the capital, Sana’a, in the early hours of Thursday.

It added that two other civilians were also killed in the same airstrike, which also wounded six people, including three children.

 Late on Wednesday, Saudi-led fighter jets also killed a single parent and her four children in an airstrike against a residential area in the town of Dhahian in the northern province of Sa’ada, al-Masirah said in a separate report.

According to Yemen’s official Saba news agency, Saudi-led warplanes carried out at least 16 airstrikes on several provinces in the war-torn Yemen over the past 24 hours. In one incident, the coalition aircraft hit a residential area in Sa’ada with banned cluster monitions, killing a child and wounding a couple.

Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the war on Yemen in March 2015 in support of the country’s former Riyadh-friendly government. The war has killed and injured over 600,000 civilians, according to the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights.

In one of the deadliest air raids, Saudi warplanes last month targeted a wedding ceremony in Hajjah several times, killing almost 50 people and wounding 55 others. Saudi jets also carried out raids on the ambulances transporting the casualties to local hospitals.

Late on Wednesday, Yemeni army forces, supported by allied fighters from Popular Committees, launched a domestically-made short-range Badr-1 ballistic missile against a military base in Saudi Arabia’s southern region of Najran in a retaliatory strike, al-Masirah reported, citing an unnamed security source.

A few hours earlier, the Yemeni forces had fired several domestically-made Burkan 2-H (Volcano H-2) ballistic missiles at “economic targets” in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, the report said, saying all missiles successfully hit their designated targets.

Saudi authorities later claimed that air defense systems had intercepted the missiles in the skies over the capital.

Saudi Arabia often claims that it intercepts incoming Yemeni missiles, but a close study of evidence by The New York Times last year clearly suggested that in one of the most high-profile of such Yemeni missile attacks, the projectile, launched deep into Saudi territory, had in fact landed unimpeded, bypassing American-made Patriot missiles and potentially other defenses used by Riyadh. Saudi Arabia claimed that it had foiled that attack, which targeted the Riyadh airport.

The Saudi-led coalition has also blockaded the already-impoverished country. The United Nations says a record 22.2 million people in Yemen are in need of food aid, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.

EU warns about ‘dramatic escalation of hostilities’ in Yemen

On the other hand, the European Union has expressed concerns about escalating tensions in Yemen, saying the crisis gripping the impoverished country needs a political solution not a military approach.

In a statement released on Thursday, MajaKocijancic, the EU spokeswoman for foreign affairs and security policy, said Yemen has witnessed “a dramatic escalation of hostilities” in the past few weeks, resulting in many casualties and civilian infrastructure damage.

“This escalation runs against the commitment of all sides to a political solution of the conflict in Yemen and feeds into a vicious cycle of successive retaliations that risks to undermine the efforts of UN Special Envoy Martin

Griffiths and put the resumption of peace talks in jeopardy,” the statement read.

“There is no military solution to the conflict in Yemen. Only a negotiated, political solution through an inclusive process can put an end to the conflict and restore hope for stability and peace in the country and the region,” it added.

The EU further supported a Wednesday statement by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the conflict in Yemen.

Guterres reminded the parties to the Yemen crisis that “a negotiated political settlement through inclusive intra-Yemeni dialogue is the only way to end the conflict and address the ongoing humanitarian crisis.”

Calling on all sides to refrain from further escalation, he noted that all potential violations of international humanitarian law should be thoroughly investigated.

Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a war on Yemen in March 2015 in support of Yemen’s former Riyadh-friendly government and against the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

The military campaign has killed and injured over 600,000 civilians, according to the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights.

Several Western countries, the US and the UK in particular, are accused of being complicit in the aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment.

Yemeni forces regularly target positions inside Saudi Arabia in retaliatory attacks against the Riyadh-led military operation.

Saudi Arabia tests alarm system

In another development on Thursday, Saudi Arabia tested a new siren system for the capital, Riyadh, and Eastern Province, amid retaliatory missile strikes from Yemen.

The Saudi civil defense said in a statement that the system was designed to “face risks of all kinds” and alert the population “in case of emergency.”

It also posted a video on its website showing the testing of the new siren system.

The Yemeni army and allied popular fighters from the HouthiAnsarullah movement have launched a number of missile attacks on economic and other targets deep within the Saudi soil in retaliation for the devastating war that has been launched by Riyadh on its southern neighbor since March 2015.

On Sunday, Yemeni forces fired a domestically-manufactured Zalzal-2 (Earthquake 2) ballistic missile at the Ain al-Thwareen base in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern Asir region.

Last month, Houthi fighters fired two Badr 1-type ballistic missiles at a Saudi Aramco facility in Saudi Arabia’s Jizan Province. They also targeted Jizan airport in with a missile strike.

Back in March, Yemen’s military targeted King Khalid International Airport north of Riyadh and as well as Abha, Najran and Jizan regional airports with ballistic missiles.

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