Fresh Saudi Airstrikes Leave Six Civilians Dead in Yemen

Local official said Saudi fighter jets conducted five aerial assaults against Khalfah outdoor market in the Nihm district of the capital province of Sana’a on Saturday, leaving five people dead and three vehicles destroyed, Saba news agency.

The official added that the airstrikes also caused considerable damage to the commercial district.

Separately, one person lost his life and four others sustained injuries when Saudi warplanes launched aerial attacks against Shaje’a market in the Zabid district of Yemen’s Western coastal province of Hudaydah.

The development came as Saudi jets targeted the building of the Yemen Today satellite news channel in Sana’a, killing four citizens.

The head guard, himself wounded in the attack, told reporters at the scene that the strike had hit his staff’s sleeping quarters.

“This is not a military post and there are no weapons here. This is just the house where we security guards live,” he said outside the heavily damaged building.

The Yemen Today television network was affiliated with the General People’s Congress (GPC) of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was killed on Monday.

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen since March 2015 to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 15,000 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.

Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

According to several reports, the Saudi aggression against Yemen has driven the impoverished country towards humanitarian disaster, as Saudi Arabia’s deadly campaign prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country.

The cholera outbreak in Yemen which began in April, has also claimed over 2,200 lives and has infected over 900,000 people, as the nation has been suffering from what the World Health Organization (WHO) describes as the “largest epidemic in the world” amid a non-stop bombing campaign led by Saudi Arabia. Also Riyadh’s deadly campaign prevented the patients from traveling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country.

According to reports, the cholera epidemic in Yemen, which is the subject of a Saudi Arabian war and total embargo, is the largest recorded in modern history.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has described the current level of hunger in Yemen as “unprecedented,” emphasizing that 17 million people are now food insecure in the country.

It added that 6.8 million, meaning almost one in four people, do not have enough food and rely entirely on external assistance.

A recent survey showed that almost one third of families have gaps in their diets, and hardly ever consume foods like pulses, vegetables, fruit, dairy products or meat.

More than 3 million pregnant and nursing women and children under 5 need support to prevent or cure malnutrition.