Death toll from US airstrikes on Yemen's port city rises to eight

Sanaa, April 9 (IANS) The death toll from overnight US airstrikes on Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah has risen to eight, including a pregnant woman, with 16 others injured, local health authorities said in a statement early on Wednesday.

The majority of the victims were women and children, according to the statement.

The tragedy occurred when US military warplanes struck homes in the Amin Muqbil residential neighborhood late Tuesday night, according to health authorities and local residents, who also shared video footage on social media following the airstrikes.

These strikes on Hodeidah were part of a broader series of 50 US airstrikes across northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa and the provinces of Amran, Dhamar and Ibb, as reported by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV. The strikes specifically targetted telephone network facilities in Amran and Ibb, residents from those areas said.

This marks the latest round of US airstrikes since March 15, when the US resumed attacks aimed at deterring the Houthi group from targeting Israel following the collapse of the Gaza ceasefire deal, Xinhua news agency reported.

In a similar attack on Sunday night, US airstrikes hit a house in Sanaa, killing four children and injuring 25 others, with several nearby buildings also damaged.

Earlier in the day, Yemen's Houthis said that they have shot down another US MQ-9 drone, the 18th since the start of the war in Gaza, the military group said.

"Our air defences shot down a US MQ-9 drone in the airspace of Al-Jawf province, using a locally manufactured surface-to-air missile," the group's spokesperson, Yahya Sarea, said in a televised statement aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.

"This is the 18th US drone shot down by our air defenses since October 2023," Sarea said, referring to the timeframe when his group began launching attacks against Israeli targets to show solidarity with Palestinians a few days after the outbreak of war in Gaza on October 7, 2023.

The last MQ-9 was reportedly shot down by the Houthi forces on Thursday over the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.

This type of drone has become well-known to Yemenis because it has been hovering overhead across northern Yemeni provinces almost daily since October 2023.

--IANS

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