Saudi air strike on Yemen wedding kills 8 women, 2 children, say residents

Eight women and two children from the same Yemeni family were killed when an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition hit a wedding party, residents said today.

The ten people were returning yesterday evening from a wedding in the Marib province, an area east of the capital Sana’a held by the Houthi group, when their vehicle was struck, the sources said.

A spokesman for the coalition did not respond to an email requesting comment.

The residents said the victims, all female, were part of the same family, but gave no further details on their ages or if anyone else was travelling with them.

Riyadh is leading a coalition of Arab states which began launching air strikes in Yemen in March 2015 to restore to power internationally backed President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who was driven from the capital in 2014 by Houthi fighters and militias allied with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

 UN: 230 killed in last six days in Yemen

Saleh severed ties with the Houthis on 2 December; he was killed by the group two days later.

The United Nations says that more than 60,000 people have been killed or wounded in the conflict, which also displaced more than two million and triggered a cholera epidemic that has infected about one million people.