Saudi Warplanes Pound Yemen, Killing at Least 50, Many Civilians

Houthi 'Public Holiday' a Target for Airstrikes

by Jason Ditz, 

Monday was declared a “public holiday” across northern Yemen, as the Shi’ite Houthi movement commemorated the one-year anniversary of capturing the capital city of Sanaa away from the previous government. The holiday saw public rallies praising the Houthis for resisting the Saudi attacks on Yemen, and condemning the US for its participation in the Saudi war.

The day also saw heavy airstrikes against Yemen from Saudi warplanes, with at least 50 confirmed killed, the majority of them civilians. Attacks targeted police stations and a cement factory, but subsequent attacks also killed rescue workers trying to drag casualties out of the rubble, and one airstrike near the cement factory hit a group of shepherds tending nearby sheep.

The Saudis have escalated their airstrikes against Yemen this month, after a Houthi attack killed scores of foreign troops, including some Saudis and Bahrainis and a large number of Emiratis. Though pro-Saudi forces have predicted an imminent victory in the ground war, no territory appears to have changed hands in recent days.

Saudi Arabia declared war in March, vowing to reinstall the former Hadi government in power in Yemen. Several thousand people have been killed so far in this war, mainly civilians, and it has split the country between north and south.

http://news.antiwar.com/2015/09/21/saudi-warplanes-pound-yemen-killing-at-least-50-many-civilians/