Saudi airstrikes kill at least 30 in Yemen, including civilians, Houthis say

A Tornado warplane flies over the Saudi capital Riyadh during a graduation ceremony at King Faisal Air Force University on January 20, 2008 - A Saudi fighter jet crashed in conflict-torn Yemen, the Riyadh-led military coalition backing the government said - Copyright HASSAN AMMAR

By Reuters with NBC News World News

Published on 16/02/2020 - 05:37

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The news followed a Houthi claim that they downed a Saudi coalition warplane in the area on Friday.

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement accused the Saudi-led coalition of carrying out retaliatory air strikes on Saturday that killed 30 people including civilians in the latest flare-up of a five-year war.

The health ministry in Houthi-controlled Al-Jawf province said women and children were among those killed, Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported. It followed a Houthi claim to have downed a coalition Tornado warplane in the area on Friday.

But the Saudi-led coalition's spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said only that a Tornado jet had crashed in Al-Jawf, Saudi state news agency (SPA) reported on Saturday. Maliki later said that rescue operations had been launched and that the possibility of "damages" has been reported, without providing more details.

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The Saudi-led Sunni Muslim coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the Houthis ousted the internationally recognized government from power in the capital Sanaa in 2014.

The conflict is widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and its regional foe Shi'ite Muslim Iran.There was no independent verification of the air strikes or Tornado downing.

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