82 killed after Saudi-led airstrike hits funeral in Yemen

Saudi-led warplanes killed at least 82 people when they struck mourners at a hall in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Saturday, the acting health minister in the Houthi-run administration said, but the coalition denied any role in the incident.

Ghazi Ismail also said that 534 other people were wounded in the air strike in the southern part of the city, where a wake was taking place for the father of the administration's interior minister, Jalal al-Roweishan, who had died of natural causes on Friday.


"The Saudi aggression committed a major crime today, by attacking a mourning hall for the al-Roweishan family, targeting residents in the hall. As a result, 534 were wounded and 82 were martyred," Ismail told a news conference in Sanaa.


"Absolutely no such operation took place at that target," one of the sources said, citing what he described as confirmation from the coalition air force command.




Iran, Saudi Arabia's main regional rival, described the attack as "a horrific and inhuman crime", and called for the resumption of peace talks among all Yemeni parties.

"To resolve the crisis in Yemen there is no solution but the end of aggression by the brutish Saudi rulers and start of new round of talks that includes all Yemeni sides," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.

Tragedy in Yemen following airstrike
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Tragedy in Yemen following airstrike
Reuters, Khaled Abdullah
Reuters, Khaled Abdullah
Reuters, Khaled Abdullah
Reuters, Khaled Abdullah
Reuters, Khaled Abdullah
Reuters, Khaled Abdullah
Reuters, Khaled Abdullah
Reuters, Khaled Abdullah





A spokesman for Yemen's Houthi group condemned the strike as an act of savagery.

"The aggression continues to shed blood in an uncommon savagery and with international collusion that reaches the level of direct participation," the Houthi-run Saba news agency quoted the group's spokesman, Mohammed Abdul-Salam, as saying in a statement.



The Saudi-led coalition had been blamed for several attacks on medical centers, including some run by international aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), schools, factories and homes in the past 18 months that has killed scores of civilians.



(Additional reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin,; writing by Sami Aboudi, Editing by William Maclean, Andrew Roche and Susan Thomas)

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