UPDATE 2-Air strikes in Yemen hit Houthi territory, Houthis fire ballistic missile

Reuters
Updated

(Adds Houthi missile)

DUBAI, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Air strikes blamed on the Saudi-led coalition killed at least 16 people in Yemen's Houthi-controlled Dalea province on Tuesday, two residents and the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV said.

The strikes came four days after the Houthis, a group aligned with Iran, said they would stop aiming missile and drone attacks at Saudi Arabia if the Saudi-led coalition targeting Yemen does the same.

The coalition spokesman said later on Tuesday that Houthi forces fired a ballistic missile from Amran, northwest of the capital Sanaa, but it fell inside Houthi territory in Yemen.

The Houthis this month claimed an assault on Saudi oil facilities which initially halved the kingdom's production. Washington and Riyadh blame Iran for that attack.

Al-Masirah TV said 16 people in one building - including seven children - died in strikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition. There was no immediate comment from the coalition.

Saudi Arabia leads a coalition that intervened in 2015 to restore the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, which the Houthis ousted from power in the capital Sanaa in late 2014. It has carried out many air strikes in Houthi areas.

Two residents told Reuters that 17 people had died in the strikes on Qataba, a frontline town which lies on the main north-south route between Houthi-controlled Sanaa and the southern port city of Aden.

Aden is nominally the interim seat of Yemen's internationally recognised government, but southern separatists seized control of the city last month.

Violence from both sides during the war has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed millions to the brink of famine.

Nine people, including three children, died this month when shelling from Houthi-controlled territory hit their house south of the major port city of Hodeidah, medical sources told Reuters.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said eight women and one child had been admitted to a nearby hospital after shelling. (Reporting by Reuters team in Yemen Writing by Lisa Barrington, Editing by Giles Elgood and Ed Osmond)