SANAA, Yemen (AP) – Airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition targeted Yemen’s capital early on Friday, hitting at least three houses in Sanaa and killing at least 14 civilians, including women and children, residents and eyewitnesses said.
The attack was the latest by the coalition, which has been waging a relentless air campaign against Yemen’s Iran-backed Shiite rebels for the past two years in an effort to bring the internationally recognized government back to power.
Recently, the strikes in and around the capital, Sanaa, targeting army compounds and other locations of the rebels known as Houthis, have intensified. On Wednesday, coalition fighter jets struck a hotel in the town of Arhab, north of Sanaa, killing at least 41 people.
Friday’s strikes hit the city’s southern neighborhood of Fag Attan. The death toll was expected to rise further as rescuers pulled more victims from under the rubble.
The escalation comes amid signs of fracturing between the two main components of the rebel alliance in Sanaa, the Houthis and loyalists of ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh – a standoff that has triggered fears of street violence.