Airstrike kills 9 civilians in northern Yemen

A Saudi-led coalition airstrike killed nine civilians, including four children, in Yemen's northern province of Amran on Thursday, a local official said.

The nine from three families were killed when the airstrike hit their three-story residential building, the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Five others were fatally wounded after pulled alive from under the rubble, he said.

Medical officials at Amran hospital confirmed the toll.

The apartment building locates near a public market in central Amran city, the province capital, about 60 km north of the country's capital Sanaa.

The military Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been aerial bombing rebels, Shiite Houthi armed group backed by troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, since 2015 after the rebels expelled Saudi-backed internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile.

Houthi fighters and Saleh forces stormed Sanaa, Amran and about half of the country's north in late 2014 and they still dominate despite the 18-month intensified war.

The coalition intervened with air military campaign with the aim to prevent the rebels from controlling the country and restore the government.

The UN-sponsored peace talks between Yemeni rival factions collapsed last month, but UN envoy Ismail Ould Chiekh Ahmed said this week the Yemeni parties agreed to resume negotiations to end war and share future new government.

At least 10,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the air strikes and battles, and about three million are displaced. 

Source : XINHUA