At least fourteen civilians have been killed and dozens more have suffered injuries as Saudi fighter jets pounded the alleged strongholds of Houthi fighters in northern parts of Yemen despite a truce offer put forth by the Shia fighters.
According to a statement released by the fighters on Thursday, Saudi warplanes carried out 13 aerial attacks on al-Sha’af district in the northern Yemeni governorate of al-Jawf.
The fighter jets dropped several bombs on homes in the conflict area, killing14 people, among them 10 women and children, lost lives.
The statement added that Saudi forces also fired 620 rockets — 360 during the day and 260 others during the evening — against the beleaguered areas of Shada, al-Malaheet, al-Hurra and Qafarah.
Meanwhile, Houthi fighters says they have managed to kill an unspecified number of Yemeni soldiers and wounding several others, while repulsing an overnight government incursion into Hasana district.
Furthermore, the Shia fighters said that they resisted a government operation into Jabal Dhar Hamar and set some army vehicles ablaze.
Yemen’s Houthi fighters say provided that they do not come under fire, the Shia forces will not attack the Saudi and Yemeni armies.
“As long as no one attacks us, we would not target any party,” AFP quoted a Tuesday statement posted online by the office of Shia leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi.
On Saturday, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi offered to accept the government’s five-point truce terms in a bid “to avoid…the annihilation of civilians.”
The fighters withdrew from at least 46 positions along the Saudi-Yemen border as a goodwill gesture to end months of clashes in the beleaguered north.
Riyadh announced victory last week after the fighters’ truce offer and their consequent departure from the border towns, claiming the fighters had been forced out of the positions.
The Yemeni government launched an all-out war against Houthi fighters in August and was soon joined by the Saudi army.
The joint military action has taken a heavy toll on civilians in northern Yemen, drawing repeated warnings from human rights organizations of a humanitarian crisis there.
MP/MMN
