Local Editor

At least 14 loyalists of fugitive former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi were killed when a Saudi-led coalition air raid targeted their position "by mistake" in Yemen, tribal and military sources said on Friday.

"The air force bombed a gathering of ["]fighters["] in the region of Harib believing them to be Houthis," a military source said.

A tribal chief was said to have confirmed the overnight Saudi-led airstrike, saying that those killed appeared to be local tribesmen fighting on the side of the forces loyal to Hadi.

A Saudi-led coalition backed by the United States has been carrying out a military aggression on Yemen by launching airstrikes against the country since March 26. The airstrikes have not been authorized by the United Nations [UN].

The US-led Saudi aggression began in an attempt to restore power to Hadi, a close ally of Saudi Arabia, and to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement which is currently responding to the attacks on the country.

The ’civilian’ death toll in Yemen has risen to at least 1,916, with another 4,186 civilians wounded since the escalation of the conflict in March, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [OHCHR] reported recently last month.