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Houthi-Reported Toll From Saudi Strike Near Sanaa Reaches 44 as Funerals Are Held
By Maya Wilson
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Large crowds gathered in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on Wednesday to mourn people the Houthis say were killed in a Saudi strike on a village outside the city last Saturday. The Houthis put the death toll at 44, including 21 children, and said 40 others were injured, according to an AFP report carried by Al-Monitor.
The reported toll from the November 7 strike in al-Shariya has not been independently verified by AFP. The agency’s report described the dead as “dozens of people, nearly half of them children,” while attributing the specific figures to the Houthis.
According to an AFP photographer present, mourners prayed at Sanaa’s Mosque of the People, formerly known as the Saleh Mosque and renamed by the Houthis after they took control of the capital. Men and boys stood beside coffins near the mosque. The caskets, covered in white cloth, bore photographs and names of those killed.
After the prayers, a funeral procession carried the bodies to al-Shariya for burial, AFP reported. Residents in the village mourned friends and relatives, with many breaking into tears, according to the agency.
Daifallah Sarhan, a farmer who lives in the area, told AFP earlier in the week that those killed were innocent. “People were simply having a meal with their families and children” when the strikes hit, he said.
The Houthis’ Almasirah television reported another strike as emergency personnel headed to the site to dig out survivors. AFP said it could not verify that report. The AFP account carried by Al-Monitor reported no Saudi statement addressing the al-Shariya strike itself.
The attack comes amid renewed fighting in Yemen. The war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized Sanaa; a Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict the following year in support of the government. A fragile truce reached in 2022 fell apart in July after the Houthis allowed an Iranian plane to land in the capital in defiance of Saudi control over Yemeni airspace, setting off a series of attacks, according to the supplied AFP report.
The Houthis later declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and attacked Saudi ships, territory and oil facilities before seizing Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast. The United Nations says the renewed fighting has killed more than 1,600 people and displaced more than 300,000.
The report says 26 people have been killed in Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia since hostilities resumed. It also says the Houthis damaged an Aramco skyscraper in Riyadh’s financial district on Sunday and that the Saudi capital’s international airport has been targeted repeatedly.
On Wednesday, the Saudi-led coalition said on X that it had “intercepted and destroyed 3 cruise missiles launched by the Houthi terrorist militia toward the Riyadh area.” That statement concerned the missiles aimed at Riyadh, not the reported strike on al-Shariya.
— Maya Wilson, World Desk
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