Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen kill 20 civilians

Sanaa: At least 20 civilians were killed on Saturday when Saudi-led coalition fighter jets hit Yemen`s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, witnesses and a medical source told Xinhua.

The warplanes struck three taxis full of travellers near a crowded restaurant in the city, killing a number of people, including women and children.

Dozens of clients inside the restaurant were also killed or injured, according to witnesses.

A medical source in the Hodeidah hospital told Xinhua by phone that at least 20 were killed and 10 others wounded.

The attack took place around noon at the al-Jarrahi district.

The attack was the latest in a series of airstrikes conducted by the US-backed Saudi-led coalition air force since the start of the war in Yemen three years ago.

Last Tuesday, the coalition`s warplanes targeted a crowded popular market in the southwestern province of Taiz, killing over 40 people, according to local media and witnesses.

A day earlier, a family of nine members, including five children, were killed when the coalition struck the family`s house five times in Yemen`s capital Sanaa, local residents and a Xinhua photographer at the scene witnessed.

The Saudi-led coalition has intervened in the Yemeni conflict since March 2015 to roll back the Houthi militants and support the internationally-recognized President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was forced into exile by the Houthis.

The war has killed over 10,000 Yemenis, mostly children, and displaced 3 million others, creating one of the world`s worst humanitarian crises.