A mass funeral procession was held in Yemen’s capital Sanaa on Wednesday for at least 43 people said to have been killed in an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition, according to the Sabah news agency run by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Victims were killed in attacks on six homes in al-Shariya, a Yemeni village east of Sanaa, on Saturday, Sabah said. The agency reported that 21 children and 10 women were among the dead.
Footage broadcast on Houthi-run Masira TV showed large crowds gathering at the cemetery. Men with rifles were seen digging graves.
Ahead of the funeral, Masira TV showed graphic footage of children lying motionless, whom Houthi authorities said had been killed in an airstrike. The attack was the third in a row, and paramedics and rescue workers were also injured.
Yemen’s Houthis hold mass funeral after deadly Saudi airstrike
At least 43 people, including women and children, allegedly killed in a Saudi-led airstrike were buried in a mass funeral in Yemen, as renewed fighting between Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed forces intensifies the country’s ongoing conflict.
CNN has reached out to the Saudi government and Yemen’s Saudi-led coalition for comment.
Fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition flared up again in July, shattering a 2022 UN-brokered ceasefire that had brought years of relative calm after Saudi-backed forces attacked Sanaa airport in an attempt to intercept Houthi planes arriving from Iran.
In retaliation, the Houthis attacked and captured territory along Yemen’s west coast and near the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a key trade route.
Saturday’s attack came as casualties soar in Yemen, which has been plunged into a severe humanitarian crisis after years of conflict.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Tuesday that at least 2,025 people were killed or injured between October 31 and November 8, including 163 in the northern city of Marib alone.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to extend the asset freeze and travel ban until November 2027 and renew Yemen’s sanctions regime for another year amid escalating violence.
The UK-drafted resolution strongly condemns the Houthi military offensive and missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia and Red Sea vessels, expands the UN Monitoring Committee to include maritime security experts, and asserts that the arbitrary detention of UN and humanitarian workers is grounds for sanctions.
On Wednesday, Houthi-controlled Yemen’s parliament appealed to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to intervene in the escalating fighting. Congress claimed that hundreds of Saudi airstrikes over the past five days had killed or injured more than 300 people, most of them children, women and the elderly. CNN has not independently verified this number.
The Houthi-run Health Ministry also said Wednesday that at least 359 civilians have been killed and 780 injured in Saudi Arabia’s latest alleged escalation. The ministry said most of the victims were women and children.
Houthi forces said on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia had carried out 93 airstrikes and missile attacks in the past 24 hours, targeting civilian and energy infrastructure across Houthi-held territory.
Rebels continue to target Saudi infrastructure, including King Khalid International Airport in the capital Riyadh and oil facilities. In October, a series of attacks on airports killed at least 20 people and injured hundreds.
On Wednesday, the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted two drones over the Islamic holy city of Mecca. Another missile was intercepted over Riyadh on Thursday.
The Houthis deny targeting Mecca and call the coalition’s claims “another lie”.
Last weekend, a missile attack damaged a building belonging to Saudi oil giant Aramco in Riyadh’s financial district.
Correction: This article has been corrected to say 2,025 people were killed or injured in Yemen between October 31 and November 8, according to the World Health Organization.
