Houthis accuse Saudi-coalition of killing civilians
The United Nations says as many as 31 Yemeni civilians died in airstrikes on Saturday (February 15) that the country's Houthi movement claims were retaliation by a Saudi-led coalition.
(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) UNIDENTIFIED MAN, SAYING:
"This is a farmer's car who was going to Sanaa and he was targeted on the way."
In the latest flare-up in the five year Yemen conflict, the Iran-aligned Houthis claimed on Friday (February 14) to have shot down a coalition Tornado warplane in the Houthi-controlled Al Jawf province.
They also released a video purporting to show a missile hitting the jet.
The area's health ministry said women and children were among those killed in the subsequent coalition airstrikes.
The UN office in Yemen said preliminary field reports indicated 12 injured as well as the up to 31 civilians killed.
But coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki said only that a Tornado had crashed in al-Jawf, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported on Saturday.
Maliki later said rescue operations had been launched and that the possibility of quote "collateral damages" had been reported, without providing details.
The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 in support of the internationally-recognized government, which the Houthis ousted from the capital Sanaa in 2014.
The conflict is widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and its regional foe, Iran.
