Civilian casualties mount in Yemen after dairy hit by Saudi-led airstrikes
Dozens of civilians were reported killed when a dairy was bombed in Yemen, as aid groups warned of a brewing humanitarian crisis resulting from the Saudi-led coalition's strikes on Shiite rebels.
Dozens of civilians were reported killed when a dairy was bombed in Yemen, as aid groups warned of a brewing humanitarian crisis resulting from the Saudi-led coalition's strikes on Shiite rebels.
Yemen's foreign minister called for the coalition to send in ground troops, saying that, "at some stage, air strikes will be ineffective".
Rights groups have voiced growing alarm about civilian casualties from the nearly week-old air war aimed at preventing the fall of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
At least 37 workers were killed and 80 wounded overnight at the dairy in the Red Sea port of Hodeida, Governor Hasan al-Hai said, without specifying whether the plant was hit by an air strike or rebel shelling.
The circumstances of the bombing were unclear, with some witnesses saying the dairy was hit by a coalition strike and others blaming rebels loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Assiri accused the Houthi Shiite rebels of targeting the site, using "mortar shells and Katyusha rockets... in a bid to create unrest among the Yemeni society".
The Arab forces would continue to "evaluate targets" and "lower the chances of targeting civilians or aid workers," he said.
Since Friday, at least 93 civilians have been killed and 364 wounded, the UN said.
"We have reports that the hospitals are really full of dead and injured people," spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly said. "We have heard about lots of dead bodies."
