Saudi-led airstrike kills 37 in Yemen

5 Dariya News

Aden (Yemen) 01-Apr-2015

At least 37 workers of a dairy factory were killed in an overnight airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition forces which mistook its target in Yemen's western port city of al-Hodyada, a government official told Xinhua news agency on Wednesday."The Saudi-led airstrike accidentally bombed a factory of dairy and milk products located in al-Hodyada province, killing at least 37 of its workers and causing large destruction late on Tuesday night," the official based in al-Hodyada said on condition of anonymity.Witnesses told Xinhua that "military warplanes circled for a while over the city then fired missiles that left dozens of innocent civilians and workers of the dairy factory dead or injured".A medic said the casualty figures might rise as many people were burned and seriously wounded in the attack.The toll in the airstrikes that started on March 26 has risen to 120 while at least 430 people have been wounded.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition forces launched airstrikes on military bases allied with the Shia Houthis in and around the southern Aden province on Wednesday morning, with no immediate reports of casualties.Local residents said fierce fighting erupted on Wednesday between tribal militia and pro-Houthi forces in Aden's neighbourhood of KhorMaksar using tanks and artillery shelling.The security situation sharply deteriorated in Yemen since early March when conflicts erupted in several provinces in the country's southern regions.The Shia Houthi group launched attacks on Aden city, which President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi declared as the temporary capital after he fled weeks of house arrest by the Houthis in Sanaa.Last Thursday, a Saudi-led coalition started airstrikes on Houthi targets in Sanaa and other cities, saying the multinational action was to protect Hadi's legitimacy and force the Houthis to retreat from cities it seized since September 2014.