Photo: Rod Waddington, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Airstrikes hit a crowded market in southwestern Yemen on Friday, killing at least 30 people and wounding eight more, according to officials with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels — in what would be one of the deadliest attacks since fighting resumed between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces.
The strikes hit the al-Hadara market in al-Waziyah, in Taiz province, at around 7 a.m. local time on Friday, November 6. The toll was reported by Anees Alsabahi, a spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry, who said the dead and wounded were civilians shopping at the market. In a separate tally, the ministry said Saudi attacks over the previous 24 hours had killed 30 people and wounded 21 in total.
Two sides, two stories
Within hours, the two sides in Yemen's war were blaming each other for the bloodshed — and neither account could be independently confirmed.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said three airstrikes hit the market and blamed Saudi Arabia, claiming the warplanes had taken off from the Khamis Mushait air base and left Taiz province around 8 a.m. He did not provide evidence for the claim. The Houthi-run health ministry in the capital, Sanaa, called the attack a "horrific crime" and demanded an independent international investigation into what it described as the systematic targeting of civilians.
Authorities affiliated with Yemen's internationally recognized government in Taiz denied that any airstrikes were carried out in the area at all. The government's military spokesperson, Colonel Majed al-Nazili, said the Houthis themselves had struck the market with ballistic missiles, causing dozens of civilian casualties.
The Associated Press said it could not independently verify either side's claims, and Al Jazeera said it could not independently verify the reports either. Saudi Arabia's information ministry did not respond to the Associated Press's requests for comment.
A war that never fully stopped
Taiz, Yemen's third-largest city, has been one of the most contested places in a war that began in 2015. The province is mostly controlled by the Houthis, who have besieged the provincial capital, where the Saudi-allied government and its forces are based. Fighting in the province has intensified in recent weeks.
On October 5, Yemen's internationally recognized government launched Operation Dawn of Yemen, a ground offensive backed by Saudi-led coalition air power, aimed at retaking territory held by Houthi fighters. Government forces have reported forcing Houthi fighters to retreat in parts of Taiz province, with clashes continuing along the Al-Shaqb and Al-Aqroudh fronts.
The market strike is the latest in a series of disputed attacks on civilian areas in Taiz province, where responsibility for deadly strikes has repeatedly been contested and never conclusively established. Each side has accused the other of hitting markets and residential areas as the fighting has spread.
What happens next
No independent investigation has been announced, and no United Nations agency or international aid group had issued a statement on the incident as of Saturday. With both sides trading blame and no outside verification, the victims' families are unlikely to get a definitive answer about who fired the weapons that hit the market.
The strike also comes as the war's cross-border dimension escalates. On the same weekend, Saudi Arabia said its air defenses intercepted a Houthi cruise missile and a drone aimed at the Riyadh region — a sign that the renewed fighting in Yemen is spilling further beyond its borders.
For civilians in Taiz, the market attack is a reminder that the war's deadliest front is often not a battlefield at all, but the places where people buy food for their families.
Sources: The Associated Press; Al Jazeera; Haaretz.