DUBAI (Reuters) – Yemen’s Iran-aligned Huthi 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 Huthi-controlled Al-Jawf province said women and children were among those killed, Huthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported. It followed a Huthi claim to have downed a coalition plane in the area on Friday.
There was no confirmation from the coalition or independent verification of either incident.
Huthi military spokesman Yahya Saria said on Friday that a Tornado jet belonging to “enemy forces” had been brought down in Al-Jawf with an air-to-ground missile, Al-Masirah reported.
The Saudi-led Sunni Muslim coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the Huthis 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 Shia Muslim Iran.
Reporting by Nayera Abdallah and Alaa Swilam in Cairo; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne
