20 killed in Saudi-led airstrike on fish market in Yemen

At least 20 people were killed and 50 others injured on Thursday when a Saudi-led coalition airstrike hit a popular fish market in Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, a medical official told Xinhua.

The market is just about five meters away from the main gate of the al-Thawra Hospital, the official said by telephone on condition of anonymity.

"At least 20 were confirmed killed in an initial toll and up to 50 others wounded in the airstrike," said the official.

Many bodies and injured people were still trapped inside the market as the rescue teams could not reach the other side of the market because of the continuing air and sea bombardments, he added.

The attack was the latest in a series of airstrikes launched by the coalition against Houthi targets in Yemen.

Last week, a Saudi-led coalition airstrike killed at least five people of a family in the country's northern province of Saada.

The impoverished Arab country has been locked in a civil war since the Houthi rebels overran much of Yemen militarily and seized all northern provinces in 2014, including the capital Sanaa.

Saudi Arabia has led an Arab military coalition to intervene in the Yemen war since 2015 to support the government of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

More than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, have been killed in the war, and about 3 million have been displaced.

--IANS

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