Yemenupdated 25m ago3 min read
Houthis Say Saudi-Led Coalition Airstrikes Kill At Least 27 in Al-Shariya Village Near Sanaa
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3 West Asian2 Western Mainstream1 Israeli1 Local WesternThis article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Al-Shariya village near Sanaa hit by airstrikes; Houthis report at least 27 dead. Reports later raise death toll to 33 with 39 wounded, including women and children.
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Al-Shariya Toll Revisions
Houthis said Saudi-led coalition airstrikes killed at least 27 people and wounded 36 others in al-Shariya, a farming village in Sanaa province, on Saturday, according to the Houthi-run Health Ministry speaking to the Associated Press. The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the toll included mostly women and children and that it more than doubled from an initial count of 11 dead within roughly seven hours as rescue crews pulled bodies from the rubble of five destroyed houses. The death count from al-Shariya was revised upward at least three times on Saturday, with the first figure reaching international wires as 11 dead carried by the Houthi-run Saba news agency via AFP.
Anees al-Asbahi later told AP that the toll had climbed again to 27 killed and 36 wounded, and the Houthi-run outlet al-Masirah broadcast an intermediate figure of 22 killed and 30 wounded. Deutsche Welle also cited the Houthi health ministry saying at least 33 people were killed in airstrikes on al-Shariya near Sanaa on Saturday, and it said Anees Alasbahi added in a post on X that at least 39 people had been wounded.
Who Was Blamed
Anees al-Asbahi accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out the strikes on al-Shariya in statements relayed to the Associated Press, while the AP said it could not independently verify the claim.
Saudi Arabia’s Information Ministry did not respond to AP’s request for comment on al-Shariya, and the coalition’s only public statement on Saturday addressed a Houthi cruise missile it said it had intercepted over the Riyadh region.
The Times of Israel reported that Houthi media described the attack as a “Saudi enemy warplane massacre,” and it said the Houthi-run outlet’s Saba news agency used that phrase.
The Houthi-run outlet al-Masirah said operations to recover victims from the rubble were ongoing and that “aircraft targeted paramedics with two strikes,” according to the Times of Israel.
WRAL, carrying an Associated Press account, said Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree later claimed the Houthis carried out attacks against Saudi Arabia in response to the strikes on the village and another deadly attack Friday on a market in southwestern Yemen.
Humanitarian and War Context
The sources tied the al-Shariya strike to a broader escalation in Yemen, with Deutsche Welle saying a yearslong truce fell apart over summer and that the Houthis pushed forward in an offensive along the Red Sea coast in September. Deutsche Welle said the United Nations reported over 1,600 people had been killed and more than 300,000 displaced since the intensification of fighting. The Times of Israel said the United Nations reported more than 1,600 people had been killed and more than 300,000 displaced since fighting resumed, and it described the Houthis and Saudi-led coalition as exchanging daily attacks after the truce fell apart over the summer.
The https | West Asian source said the strikes marked the second mass-casualty event on the Yemen front in less than 24 hours, after a separate strike on a market in Taiz province killed at least 30 people on Friday. The https | West Asian source also said no coalition official addressed the village by name and that whether there were military targets in or near the farming settlement was a question only the coalition could answer, while it chose not to do so.