‘19 children among dead in Yemen strikes’

SANAA: Nineteen children were among at least 31 civilians killed in air strikes on rebel-held northern Yemen last week, the United Nations said on Thursday.

"Unicef is sad to confirm that the recent attack in Al-Jawf, north of Yemen, on February 15, took the lives of 19 children (eight boys and 11 girls) and injured another 18 (nine boys and another nine girls)," the UN children’s agency said in a statement.

"It was an attack on a civilian populated area where children were in the vicinity," Unicef regional communications chief Juliette Touma told AFP. Saturday’s air strikes came after the Iran-aligned rebels claimed to have shot down an aircraft of the Saudi-led coalition supporting the government.

Unicef urged the warring sides to put an end to the conflict, adding that the "worrying escalation of violence over the past few weeks is a harsh reminder that children in Yemen continue to carry the heaviest burden of the conflict". The Saudi-led coalition intervened in the war in 2015, shortly after the rebels seized control of the capital Sanaa.