Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting Houthi rebels denies firing missiles at Red Sea village where wedding reception was being held
The death toll from an airstrike on a wedding party in Yemen has jumped to 131, medics have said, making it one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in Yemen’s war and drawing strong condemnation from the UN secretary general.
A Saudi-led Arab coalition that has air supremacy over Yemen has strongly denied any role in the tragedy, and a coalition spokesman suggested local militias may have been responsible.
Residents said on Monday that two missiles tore through tents in the Red Sea village of Al-Wahijah, near the port of Al-Mokha. A local man affiliated with the Houthis – the Shia rebel group who are fighting the coalition – was holding his wedding reception.
A source at a hospital in Maqbana, where the casualties were taken, said on Tuesday that the death toll from the attack had risen to 131, from 27 reported on Monday.
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The Arab coalition began airstrikes in March in a bid to drive the Iranian-allied Houthi forces out of wide swaths of the country seized since last year. The coalition is seeking to reinstate President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Pro-Hadi government forces backed by local militias, Gulf troop reinforcements and air raids have retaken terrain from the Houthis, including the southern port of Aden, where Hadi has set up a temporary base after returning from Saudi exile.
But international rights groups have expressed alarm at the escalating number of civilian deaths in the conflict – at least 2,355 out of more than 4,500 people killed from the end of March to 24 September, according to figures released by the UN on Tuesday.
