An airstrike has killed 22 people near Yemen's capital, Houthi official says

CAIRO (AP) — Airstrikes hit homes in a village near Yemen's capital, Sanaa, on Saturday, killing at least 22 people and wounding 30 others, mostly women and children, a spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi-run Health Ministry said.

Speaking to The Associated Press, Anees Alasbahi accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out the strikes on al-Shariya. The AP could not independently verify the claims, and Saudi Arabia's Information Ministry did not immediately reply to an AP request for comment.

The toll reflected the rapid worsening of Yemen’s civil war, where a yearslong truce fell apart over the summer. Fighting has escalated between the Iranian-backed Houthis — who control Sanaa, the north and the west of the country — and their Saudi-backed opponents based in the south and east.

On Friday, an airstrike in a market in southern Yemen killed at least 30 people, according to Houthi officials. The Houthis and Yemen’s Saudi-backed military each blamed the other for that strike.

Footage from Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV of the aftermath of Saturday's strikes showed staff carrying limp bodies of young children out of ambulances bringing the casualties to a local hospital. One little girl's head had been cleaved open. Other children lay on stretchers, bloodied and bandaged as staff tended to them. Footage from the village showed the rubble of destroyed houses and dust filling the air as people hid in nearby agricultural fields.

Alasbahi said in a posting earlier on X that Saturday’s strikes hit several homes in al-Shariyah. Subsequent strikes targeted emergency responders, he told the AP.

In September, the Houthis made a lightning advance capturing much of Yemen's Red Sea coast and strategic islands in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. They have also encircled the city of Taiz, a strategic gateway to southern Yemen. At the same time, they have stepped up strikes on Saudi Arabia, targeting oil and military infrastructure and shipping in the Red Sea.

Abu Joud reported from Beirut.