A Saudi-led coalition airstrike reportedly left at least eight people in one family dead after a missile hit a house in Yemen’s southwestern province of Taiz on Friday.
The house, located in the Warzan area in the Khadir district, was a target of the strike. The family in the house was killed, including women and children.
Five others were injured in the attack.
Casualties in Yemen
The strike, which was confirmed by officials in Saudi Arabia who chose to remain anonymous because they were not permitted to share details of the strike officially, was reportedly part of an ongoing effort to support the exiled Yemeni government, which has been overrun by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
The Saudi-led coalition has been fighting for four years in the area.
Houthi spokesman Mohamed Abdel Salam said that the airstrikes wounded a “number” of people, but the Saudi coalition had no official comment.
Children in Danger
In the four years since fighting began, 91,000 Yemeni have been killed, including 7,500 children, according to The Washington Post. Additionally, conditions have deteriorated in the country so much that many are on the brink of starvation.
TIME magazine called Yemen the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis” and pointed out that most of the casualties have been civilians. More than 3,000 children have been used by both sides in the fighting.
For its part, the Saudi coalition has bombed hospitals and schools where many civilians and children congregate. But TIME also reported that the Houthi military has occupied many schools in an effort to avoid an attack.
Virginia Gamba, the U.N. special representative for children in conflict, said that conditions for children in Yemen have deteriorated since the conflict began, calling them “appalling.”
“The children of Yemen had nothing to do with the start of this conflict,” she said. “They should now be given the opportunity to exit from it and be assisted to fully recover.”
Looking Forward
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has been mentioned as a possible ally if the U.S. decides to participate in airstrikes against Iran. Iran has been involved in several incidents involving provocations after the U.S. placed sanctions on it in 2018.
For his part, U.S. President Donald Trump pulled back from a planned air strike against Iran last week to avoid causing an estimated 150 casualties.
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