Houthis say Saudi strikes killed 17 civilians

Yemen's Houthis said Saudi strikes killed 17 civilians over two days this week, while the Saudi-led coalition said on Tuesday it had intercepted and destroyed a drone in Saudi Arabia's Mecca region.

Turki al-Malki, spokesman for the coalition fighting the Houthis, wrote on social media that there had been an "interception and destruction of a drone in the Mecca region". He did not say who launched it.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree denied that the group had carried out any attacks on Saudi territory on Tuesday, calling the Saudi statement "a slanderous and recycled lie".

The Houthi health ministry said most of the 17 people it said were killed in Yemen over two days were children. It said this showed Saudi aircraft were targeting homes, residential neighbourhoods and markets.

Saree said on Monday evening that Riyadh had carried out "109 strikes over the past 24 hours" in Yemen, targeting Saada, Taiz, Lahj, Al-Jawf and Hodeidah governorates. The Houthis also claimed drone attacks on Saudi airports in the east and south of the kingdom.

Yemen has been at war since 2014, when the Houthis seized Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict a year later in support of the government. A 2022 truce fell apart in July, and the United Nations says more than 1,600 people have been killed and more than 300,000 displaced since fighting resumed.