This archive report was first published on 2 August 2019.
On August 2, 2019, a devastating airstrike hit Al-Thabet market in Yemen's northern Saada province, claiming the lives of 14 civilians, including four children.
The Houthi-run hospital reported that 26 people were wounded, including 14 children, in the incident.
The Saudi-led coalition, however, blamed the Houthi rebels for the attack, with coalition spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki stating that the targeting of Al-Thabet market was a 'deliberate attack against innocent civilians.'
Moammar al-Eryani, the Saudi-backed Yemeni government's information minister, also accused the Houthis of using Katyusha rockets in the attack.
The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in Yemen expressed its 'disheartened' response to the killing and injury of children in the attack.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree condemned the attack and blamed the Saudis, stating that the Al-Thabet market crime 'proves the failure of the Saudi regime in the military and humanitarian fields as they deliberately committed a massacre against civilians.'
The conflict in Yemen began in early 2015, when Houthi rebels drove out the internationally-recognized government and forced its president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, to flee.
The crisis escalated into a multi-sided war, with neighboring Saudi Arabia leading a coalition of Gulf states against the Houthi rebels, advised and supported by the US and other nations.
According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, the total number of reported fatalities in Yemen since 2015 is more than 91,000.
