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Seven Yemenis killed, 12 injured in Saudi airstrike

Monday, 21 December 2015 9:38 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 21 December 2015 11:54 AM ]

The supporters of Yemeni Ansarullah Houthis shout slogans during a rally in Sana’a against the Saudi government, which has waged war on their country, December 17, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

At least seven people have been killed and 12 others wounded in an airstrike carried out by Saudi Arabia in Yemen’s western region despite a fragile truce.

Yemen’s al-Masirah television reported on Monday that the Saudi airstrike targeted the Haya al-Shuhada district of the city of al-Hudaydah.

The latest attack came shortly after six days of talks between a delegation representing the Houthi Ansarullah movement and representatives of Yemen’s fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi closed in the Swiss village of Magglingen.

Although a member of Hadi’s delegate said the negotiations had ended without any agreement to end the Saudi aggression against Yemen, the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said he was optimistic that a fully-respected ceasefire deal would soon come into force in Yemen. The next round of the talks aimed at ending the Yemeni conflict is expected to be held on January 14 next year.

Late Sunday, at least 25 Saudi soldiers were killed in a retaliatory missile attack by Yemeni Ansarullah fighters and allied army units against the al-Tawal border crossing, which links Yemen’s northwestern province of Hajjah to Jizan.

At least five women were also killed in a Saudi airstrike against Yemen’s northwestern Sa’ada Province.

The Saudi attacks come despite a seven-day ceasefire deal that had been put in place on December 15, when the talks in Switzerland began.

On December 18, the head of Ansarullah’s Political Council, Saleh Ali al-Sammad, accused Saudi Arabia of taking advantage of the ceasefire, saying Riyadh had intensified its airstrikes against the country’s Ma’rib, Ta’izz, and Jawf provinces.

Saudi Arabia’s military attacks against impoverished Yemen, which started in late March, have so far claimed the lives of more than 7,500 people and injured over 14,000 others. The airstrikes supposedly aim to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and bring Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, back to power.

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