US renews airstrikes on Yemen: Houthi TV

Sanaa, April 7 (IANS) The US military conducted six airstrikes on Yemen's northern provinces of Saada and Hajjah on Monday before dawn, with no casualties reported so far, the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV said.

The strikes, targeting locations in the Safra district in Saada and the Abs district in Hajjah, came a few hours after a separate wave of intensive airstrikes that targeted the western and eastern parts of the capital Sanaa.

For the airstrikes on the eastern part of Sanaa that hit a house in the Shu'ub area on Sunday night, the Houthi-run Health Ministry issued an updated statement early Monday over the death toll, saying the number of the injured has increased to 25, including 11 women and children.

Most of the injuries were in critical conditions, raising fears that the death toll, now standing at four, would rise further, al-Masirah TV said.

Residents said the targeted home belonged to a local sheikh and his family. All four people killed and several of the injured were the sheikh's family. The other wounded are neighbours whose houses were damaged in the airstrikes, Xinhua news agency reported.

In western Sanaa, the strikes hit a mountain in the Bani Matar district. No casualties were reported.

Tensions between the Houthis and the US military have escalated since Washington resumed airstrikes on March 15 by authorising a "decisive and powerful military action" against Houthi forces.

Earlier on April 7, at least one person was killed and four others wounded when airstrikes by US forces hit a solar energy store and a house in Yemen's northern city of Saada.

Medics described the casualty toll as preliminary, adding that civil defence teams were working to extinguish fires and search for victims at the targeted sites in the Hafsin area of western Saada city, the capital of the namesake Saada province.

Earlier on Saturday, the Houthi group denied US claims that an American airstrike had targeted a meeting of its military leaders in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.

A Houthi statement, reported by the group's al-Masirah TV, described the event cited in the US claims as a social gathering for the Eid holiday, calling such events a common practice in Yemen during holidays.

--IANS

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