10+ people, ‘mostly children,’ killed in a Saudi-led coalition airstrike on Yemeni capital – reports

At least 11 people, including children, have been killed and over 30 injured in an airstrike on Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, media reports, citing local health officials. The blast affected a “metal workshop” and a nearby school.

The incident occurred in the city’s eastern Sawan neighborhood on Sunday afternoon. 

While some eyewitnesses said an aircraft had targeted a “metal workshop,” a spokesman for the Houthi rebel-controlled Health Ministry said the strike actually was on a school close to the workshop. At least 11 people, “mostly schoolgirls” were killed and at least 39 others were injured.

The death toll might even be higher and stands at 13 dead and over 100 injured, AP reported, citing an unnamed official who described the incident merely as an “explosion.” 

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The coalition, for its part, has reportedly denied carrying out airstrikes in the area. Saudi-owned Al-Hadath TV for its part reported that the coalition had conducted several strikes on “military targets” in Sanaa, including in the Sawan neighborhood. Yemeni news outlets, supporting the Saudi-propped government, claimed the “metal workshop” was actually a warehouse packed with weaponry and used by the Houthi rebels.

Last week, the Saudi-led coalition bombed a rural hospital in northwest Yemen that had been supported by the Save the Children charity. That attack killed eight people, including five children, and injured seven more. The coalition has a long record of bombing civilian targets in Yemen, including weddings, funerals, school buses and busy markets.

While Riyadh is usually quite reluctant to acknowledge involvement of the coalition in such incidents, it has promised to “investigate” the most outrageous cases. The ‘investigations,’ however, have apparently had no tangible result and haven’t prevented further strikes on civilian facilities in the war-torn country.

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