At least 29 dead in Yemen air strikes

Families from the Awja school and nearby villages have set up shelters

Media statements

Fahmy al-Mahderi, a Yemeni information minister said on state TV that a missile struck a mosque and nearby religious school in Sanaa on Sunday.

At least 29 people were killed and 53 others were injured, the minister said.

Saudi-led coalition warplanes carried out a series of air strikes on the Al-Hawl neighbourhood, a defence ministry spokesman, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asseri, told Reuters news agency.

The coalition has been fighting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen for more than three years.

Yemen’s government has accused the Houthis of targeting Yemeni territory with missiles, but it is not clear what caused the latest strike.

Three people were also killed in air strikes on two Sanaa districts on Saturday, while the Saudis have repeatedly accused the Houthis of carrying out attacks on the kingdom.

Since March 2015, airstrikes by the Arab coalition have targeted infrastructure and fuel depots, killing hundreds of civilians and leaving a large number of casualties among the civilian population.

Elsewhere in Yemen, the Houthis on Saturday bombed a military base near Sanaa airport, which they control, and fighting between the rebels and security forces in the western coastal city of Hodeidah broke out, killing at least six people, medical officials said.

In the capital, Houthi fighters attacked a checkpoint and security forces fired back, prompting the coalition to immediately launch airstrikes on the rebel-held areas, state-run news agency Saba reported.

The agency also reported deadly shelling by rebel fighters on Yabira, a district east of Sanaa.

The rebels, aligned with Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, launched two rockets at the district, killing one person and wounding two others, police official Ahmed Saleh al-Shihri told AFP news agency.

On Saturday, the Houthis launched a rocket towards a military base in Taiz, killing four people, according to local authorities, and a number of other civilians were wounded, Reuters said.

The war in Yemen has left more than 70,000 people dead and millions struggling for food and medical supplies.

The UN Security Council voted to extend the mandate of a UN-backed Yemen peace initiative – under which a truce and peace talks have been arranged – for another 90 days, diplomats said on Sunday.

Reuters reported that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the ceasefire and political process must continue despite the current violence.

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