Airstrikes on homes in a village east of Yemen's capital, Sanaa, killed at least 27 people and wounded 36 others on Saturday, most of them women and children, according to the Houthi-run health ministry, in one of the deadliest reported attacks since fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-aligned Houthi movement resumed in July.
The strikes hit houses in al-Shariya village, in the Bani Hushaysh district about 15 kilometres north-east of Sanaa, on Saturday afternoon. The ministry said at least five residential houses were destroyed, and Houthi officials said the toll could still rise as rescue teams searched through the rubble.
Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry, told The Associated Press that the death toll was expected to climb while search and rescue efforts continued, and accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out the strikes. Saudi Arabia has not commented on the report and has neither confirmed nor denied any strike.
The casualty figures rose steadily through the day. Houthi officials first reported 11 people killed and 20 wounded, then raised the count to 22 dead, then 25, before the ministry's latest statement put the toll at 27 dead and 36 wounded. The figures were carried by Saba, the news agency run by the Houthi authorities.
Abdul-Aziz al-Dailami, director of Sehatuna Hospital in Sanaa, said many victims remained trapped under the rubble, including first responders who had gone to the scene. Saba reported that aircraft had struck paramedics with two further strikes and had also hit roads leading to the village, hampering the rescue effort.
Al-Masirah television, run by the Houthis, broadcast footage it said was filmed in al-Shariya, showing smoke rising from a struck site, piles of debris and wounded people being treated in hospital. Reuters said it could not independently verify the ministry's account, and the Houthis' claims about the strikes could not be independently confirmed.
The attack came a day after at least 30 people were killed in an attack on a crowded market in Yemen's south-western Taiz governorate on Friday, in an incident the Houthis and Yemen's Saudi-backed military blamed on each other. Together, the two days of bloodshed underline how quickly the renewed war has escalated since the 2022 United Nations-brokered truce, which had largely halted attacks between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis, collapsed in the summer.
The renewed fighting is a spillover from the wider United States-Iran conflict, and it has shattered a truce that held for more than three years. The United Nations says more than 1,600 people have been killed and more than 300,000 displaced since the fighting resumed, while the International Organization for Migration puts the number of people displaced since the latest round began at more than 200,000.
Within hours of the Sanaa strikes, the Houthis announced what they described as a response. Their military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said the group had launched six operations using ballistic and cruise missiles and drones, targeting Aramco oil facilities, King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, and Saudi troops and military facilities on both sides of the border.
The Saudi-led coalition said on Saturday that it had intercepted and destroyed a Houthi missile launched towards Riyadh province. Separately, forces loyal to Yemen's internationally recognised government said they had carried out 875 targeting operations over the preceding hours, claiming to have killed about 130 Houthi commanders and fighters and destroyed or damaged 50 military vehicles and missile launchers.
What happens next will depend on whether either side pulls back or the cycle of strikes and retaliation deepens. The Houthis, who control Sanaa and large parts of northern and western Yemen, have framed their attacks as a response to what they call Saudi aggression, while Riyadh has sought defensive and offensive support from a range of allies, including Syria, as the war intensifies. With rescue teams still digging through the rubble in al-Shariya and the death toll expected to rise, the attack is likely to sharpen international calls for restraint — and for the warring sides to return to the negotiating table before the revived war claims many more civilian lives.
