HODEIDA/AL-MUKALLA, Yemen: Five women were killed in war-torn Yemen when a projectile exploded at a wedding held on New Year’s Day in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, officials said Saturday.
The government and Houthi militia blamed each other for the Friday night bombing of the hall near Hodeida’s airport, a frontline between the warring sides on the edge of the Houthi-held town.
It came just two days after at least 26 people were killed in blasts that rocked the airport of the southern city of Aden as government ministers got off a plane.
Yemeni Information Minister Muammar Al-Aryani said the Houthis were responsible for the attack.
“These criminal acts committed by the Houthi militants confirm their approach, which is based on violence, killing, bloodshed and indifference to civilian lives,” he said.
Hodeida’s Houthi-appointed governor, Mohammed Ayache, said on Al-Masirah television, which is run by the Shiite Muslim militia, that “the forces of aggression never hesitate to blame others for their crimes.
But Wadah Al-Dubaish, a spokesman for the government’s Joint Forces, an umbrella group of three military units fighting the Houthis in Hodeidah, said residents had seen Houthis firing two Katyusha rockets from areas under their control in the city center.
The UN Mission to support the Hodeidah Agreement said it was appalled by the killing of civilians in Hodeidah, and called upon warring factions to stick to their commitments under the Stockholm Agreement and to stop targeting civilians.
“We condemn all breaches of the Hodeidah Agreement and caution parties to avoid further igniting a tense situation that will inflict any additional toll on civilians,” the UN team said.
General Sadek Douid, the government representative in a UN-sponsored joint commission overseeing a truce, condemned the Hodeida blast, which also left seven wounded, as “an odious crime committed by the Houthis against civilians.”
Mortar and missile fire and landmines laid by the Houthis have killed dozens of civilians and injured many others in Hodeidah during the last couple of months.
In December, a missile strike by the Houthis killed 10 workers in an industrial complex in a government-controlled part of the city.
In Aden, the newly appointed foreign minister said preliminary investigations “conclusively” showed that the Houthi militias were responsible for the missile attack on Aden airport on Wednesday, in which 25 people were killed.
Saudi-backed government forces launched an offensive in June 2018 to retake Hodeida, the main entry point for humanitarian aid to poverty-stricken Yemen. But a cease-fire has been partially observed since December of the same year.
(With AFP)
