Saudi airstrike kills 25 in Yemen, Houthi media say, as war flares again

Houthi-run media say at least 25 people were killed in Saudi airstrikes on Yemen, among them women and children. There's been no word yet from the Saudi-led coalition, which backs Yemen's internationally recognised government. The death toll comes from outlets controlled by the Houthis and has not been independently verified.

Al Masirah, the Houthi-run television station, broadcast live footage of rescuers hauling bodies from the wreckage of several buildings in al-Shariyah, a town east of the capital Sanaa. The bodies of young children appear among those pulled from the ruins, and the station showed injured people carried away on stretchers. The Houthi-run Saba news agency pinned the attack on Saudi Arabia.

The strike lands in a war that had sat quiet for years before the Iran war dragged it back to life. The truce cracked when Saudi Arabia hit Sanaa's airport, which the Houthis control, to stop an Iranian plane from landing there. The Tehran-backed Houthis answered by targeting Abha airport inside Saudi Arabia, then by hitting Saudi ships using the Red Sea off Yemen's coast as an oil export route around the Strait of Hormuz.

Heavy fighting has since returned between the Houthis and forces loyal to the Saudi-backed government. On Friday, an attack on a market in Taiz province — a hotspot in the recent clashes — was reported to have killed 30 people. The Houthis blamed Saudi Arabia for it, while government forces said the Houthis fired a missile at the site. The United Nations says more than 1,600 people have been killed and over 300,000 displaced since the fighting resumed.

Both sides are trading blows far from the front lines. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly bombed Houthi positions, and the group has fired missiles at targets inside the kingdom, including airports and oil facilities. Hours before the al-Shariyah strike, the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a missile bound for Riyadh.

A Houthi leader, Mahdi al-Mashat, has vowed the group will take revenge for the latest attacks in Yemen.