At Least 55 Killed As Saudi-Led Warplanes Hit Yemen's Taiz: Saba

A Saudi-led airstrike on Yemen's Taiz killed at least 55 people and left tens injured, Houthi-controlled news agency Saba said on Saturday.

A coalition of Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, has been bombarding Iran-allied Houthi forces in Yemen since late March in a bid to reinstate President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Riyadh.

The Saba agency quoted a local source in Taiz as saying that the bombing targeted the Mokha area inhabited mostly by engineers and workers of a power station and some displaced families.

The number of casualties is expected to rise as rescue services are still working in the area and several of those injured and transferred to nearby hospitals are in serious condition, the source said.

The frontlines of Yemen's war shifted to the favor of the Gulf Arab coalition earlier this month when in coordination with forces loyal to Hadi they managed to drive the Houthis out of the southern port city of Aden and much of the surrounding areas.

Since then warplanes have been landing in Aden airport carrying equipment necessary to help re-open the facility which had been shut down by the fighting. [ID: nL5N1043Z0]

Aden and the other southern provinces have been largely inaccessible to U.N. food aid, and about 13 million people - more than half the population - are thought to be in dire need of food.

(Reporting By Mohammed Ghobari; Writing By Maha El Dahan; Editing by Toby Chopra)