Death toll from overnight US airstrikes on Yemen's capital rises to 3

Sanaa, April 10 (IANS) The death toll from fresh US airstrikes on Yemen's capital Sanaa rose to three, with several others wounded, medics and health authorities told Xinhua.

The airstrikes targeted the Al-Nahdayn area which is surrounded by densely residential neighbourhoods on Wednesday late night.

Shrapnel hit many houses and shattered windows, causing damage and killing three residents. Several wounded civilians have been rushed to hospital.

This was the latest wave of US airstrikes on northern Yemen since the US military resumed airstrikes on the Houthi group on March 15 to deter the group from targeting Israel and US warships in the northern Red Sea.

The airstrikes also targeted several locations across other northern areas late on Wednesday, including the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah and the Island of Kamaran, where no casualties have been reported so far.

The US military has yet to comment, Xinhua news agency reported.

Earlier on April 9, Yemen's Houthis said that they had 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 defences 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.

The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, have been launching regular rocket and drone attacks against Israel and disrupting "Israeli-linked" shipping in the Red Sea since November 2023 to show solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip amid their conflict with Israelis.

--IANS

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