Airstrikes on Water Well in Yemen Kills 30 People: UN Report

The official added that the casualties in the village of Beit Saadan included first responders and children.

A military vehicle secures the gate of a prison near the Yemeni city of Omran from where 400 prisoners escaped in June 2014. Photo used for representational purpose. (Photo: Reuters)

Airstrikes launched by the Saudi-led coalition on a water well in northern Yemen reportedly killed 30 people, a UN official said on Monday.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, said in a statement that the casualties in the village of Beit Saadan included first responders and children.

Yemen’s conflict pits the internationally recognised government, which is allied with a Saudi-led military coalition, against Shiite Houthi rebels and forces loyal to a former president.

The Saudi-led military coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis and their allies since March 2015. The coalition in Yemen says Saudi air defence forces have shot down a ballistic missile fired at the kingdom from Yemen.

A statement issued by the coalition says the missile targeted the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait, but was intercepted before dawn on Friday. It says the coalition air force struck the missile’s launching pad area.

No damage or casualties were reported. The Saudi-led coalition backs Yemen’s internationally recognised government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi against the country’s Shiite rebels, Houthis and their allies, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s loyalists. The rebels, who control Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, are known to have seized a stockpile of Soviet-era Scud missiles.