20 civilians were killed and more than 50 were injured in the capital Sana’a on Friday due to air raids led by the Saudi-led coalition. The airstrikes started just after midnight on Thursday and continued to the early hours of Friday morning, according to locals. “Operation Restoring Hope war planes targeted Al Marwan district in 40 ST in Saawan Area, 20 are dead, and a large number of the wounded were women and children, 6 homes collapses while residents were still inside, “ said Adel Al Thamari who works in the Security Center of Saawan.
The intense shelling scared the residents of Saawan District, a large number of residents fled to neighboring areas in order to stay safe. “The families in the area are terrified, everybody is leaving their houses, we are scared they will bomb the area again, “ said Mohammed Al Boraihy one of Saawan residents.
The Saudi –led strikes targeted locations which were used as weapon storages for Houthis. “ We heard that the Houthis smuggled weapons into Saawan and that the coalition is targeting those places, but why should we pay the price, it’s not our fault we are victims. Thursday night was horrible we did not sleep from the heavy shelling, and the next day some of us lost family members while others lost their homes.”Waleed Al Omari had just come back to the area thinking it was safe, “We left when the bombings were heavy near the airport, we rented a house a bit further down in the city, we couldn’t afford paying rent anymore, so we decided to move back, and we were welcomed by few shells.”
General Ahmed Al Asiry, the spokesperson for the Saudi-led operation “ The Decisive Strom”, which needed on the 21st of April confirmed in all previous press conferences that, “the coalition does not target civilians, Houthis smuggle and hide arms in schools and residential areas this is why civilian causalities fall.”
The Saudi-led coalition began on the 26th of March targeting Houthis militants and forces loyal to the former president Ali Abdulla Saleh. Operation “Decisive Storm” ended on the 21st of April and was replaces with Operation “Restoring Hope”, which continues to target Houthi location, while trying to reach political solutions for the war in Yemen.
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