SANAA, Yemen - Ahlul Bayt News Agency - Saudi-led coalition airstrikes killed more than 120 civilians and wounded more than 150 after shelling a residential area in the Yemeni province of Taiz on Friday evening, security officials, medical officials and witnesses said.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, said that most of the houses in the area were leveled and a fire broke out in the port city of Mokha. Most of the corpses, including children, women and elderly people, were charred by the flames, they said.
Ahmed Mohammed al-Mouzay, a resident of the area who participated in rescue operations, said most of his neighbors had passed away. Many of the dead and wounded were transported in private cars or in animal-drawn carts drawn to hospitals, he added.
A security official said it was not possible to move the injured into the provincial capital because of road closures due to ongoing fighting.
Security officials said this comes after Saudi-led coalition planes launched dozens of airstrikes on positions of Shiite Houthi fighters and their allies in Mokha. The closest Houthi outpost to Friday evening's deadly strike is at least 5km away, officials and area residents said.
Saudi officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The fighting in Yemen pits the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants and loyalists of exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is now in Saudi Arabia.
Fierce battles between Shiite Houthis and pro-Mansour Hadi thugs in Yemen's Marib province and in Taiz Friday killed 20 people, according to officials.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.
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