DUBAI: Five civilians including a child were killed on Sunday when their house was bombarded near Yemen’s strategic Red Sea port of Hodeida, the latest violence in the grinding civil war. The Saudi-backed government and Huthi rebels traded blame for the devastating attack near frontlines south of the Huthi-held port.
“Five civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed in a mortar bomb strike on their residence by the Huthis,” a government military official told AFP. But the Iran-backed Huthis, according to the rebel-run Saba news agency, said the explosion was caused by two air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition, which intervened in the war in 2015 to back the internationally recognised government. Hodeida, which lies some 145 kilometres (90 miles) southwest of the rebel-held capital Sanaa, is a lifeline gateway for food, fuel and humanitarian aid. The United Nations last month warned that thousands of Yemeni civilians were at risk in the western Hodeida province after fighting escalated.