At least 16 members of the extended family of a Yemeni mosque imam were killed on Wednesday in an air strike on their family home in northern Yemen by the Saudi-led Arab coalition, a Reuters witness, a medic and a resident said.
It was the latest in a series of raids by the coalition, which is providing air support to Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in his fight against Iran-allied Houthis who have seized much of the country since 2014.
They said missiles struck a house of the imam, identified as Saleh Abu Zainah, in Saada, the capital of Saada province in northern Yemen, home of the Houthi group which hails from the Zaydi branch of Shi'ite Islam.
The imam, his family, his two sons and their families, all died in the attack, including at least four children, they said.
A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition had no immediate comment on the report.
Pictures taken by a Reuters photographer showed men digging up the body of a child from under the rubble.
"The air raid happened in the morning and because the house was made of mud, it took us until noon to be able to dig the bodies out," said Nayef, a resident who helped remove the rubble to recover the bodies.
A medic said rescue workers were concerned about fresh air strikes when they arrived at the scene and found aircraft still hovering overhead.
It was at least the fourth strike by the Saudi-led coalition to hit a civilian target since U.N.-sponsored peace talks between the Houthis and their General People's Congress party allies on one side and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government ended without an agreement earlier this month.
The United Nations human rights office called on Aug. 25 for more light to be shed on the Saudi-led coalition air strikes in Yemen and for violations including attacks on protected sites like hospitals to be punished.
Coalition air strikes were responsible for some 60 percent of the civilians killed since march 2015, a report said.
At least 10,000 people have been killed overall in Yemen's 18-month-old civil war, the U.N. said on Tuesday, approaching double the estimates of more than 6,000 cited by officials and aid workers for much of 2016.
U.N. Yemen envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that he would resume consultations with the parties to the conflict in a bid to take advantage of a new push for peace agreed by United States, Gulf Arab states and the U.N. earlier this month.
"My priority will be to gain a re-commitment from all sides to the cessation of hostilities," he said. "The escalation in fighting has led to tragic and unnecessary civilian deaths, casualties and a worsening of humanitarian suffering."
On Aug.18 Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) decided to evacuate its staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen after the latest air strike on a facility run by the medical charity killing 19 people.
The Saudi-led coalition expressed deep regret over the decision and said it was trying to set up "urgent meetings" with the medical aid group.
REUTERS