Saudi jets hit marketplace killing at least 25 Yemenis

At least 25 Yemeni civilians have been killed after Saudi-led coalition air strikes targeted a market in the northern Saada province, according to a local health official.

The aircraft hit the al-Moshnaq market in Shada’a District Saturday night as people gathered to buy staples for Eid al-Fitr, a festivity which marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Witnesses said some of the casualties had “just returned from a trip across the border.”

The director of the Houthi-run health department office in Saada said the aircraft conducted two raids.

“Rescue teams were unable to reach the area for some time for fear of being hit by artillery shelling of the area,” the official, Dr Abdelilah al-Azzi, told Reuters news agency by telephone on Sunday.

One other civilian was injured.

More than 12,000 have been killed so far in the war-torn country since Saudi Arabia launched its aggression in 2015 to restore former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to power. Its airstrikes often target civilian population centers and the impoverished country’s infrastructure.