Local Editor
A Saudi-led coalition air strike killed seven people at a charity-supported hospital on Tuesday as Yemenis rallied to show support for the Houthi movement on the fourth anniversary of a war that has killed thousands and pushed the country to the brink of starvation.
A missile struck a gas station near the entrance to a rural hospital 60 miles (100 km) from the city of Saada in the northwestern part of the country at 9:30 a.m. local time, killing seven people, including four children, Save the Children said in a statement.
The strike killed a health worker and the person's two children, said Save the Children, which said it supports the hospital.
Two more children and a security guard were among the other dead, and eight people were wounded, the group said.
In the capital Sana’a, men, women and children marched waving the red, white and black national colours, and chanted slogans against Saudi Arabia, which leads a military coalition against the Houthis, and the United States which backs it.
They also blamed U.S. ally Israel for destroying the country.
Massive speakers played "America and Israel, death and mutilation to you" and "five or fifty years, we will face the criminal coalition".
Reuters witnesses said tens of thousands of people, including supporters of the Houthis' Ansarullah group, had gathered in Sabeen Square in central Sana’a since the early hours of Tuesday morning.
"This is a message to the world, that at the start of the fifth year (of the war), Yemenis will be stronger ..., a message that the Yemeni resistance will be even greater," said Mohammed Haidarah, a protester.
Tens of thousands of people have died in the war pitting the Houthis against the Saudi-led coalition, which launched a military campaign against Yemen in 2015 to forcefully restore to power the resigned regime of former president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The war has displaced over two million people and driven the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country to the verge of famine.
Both sides agreed at U.N.-sponsored talks in December to a truce and troop withdrawal from the port city of Hodeida, which has become a focus of the war, and an exchange of prisoners.
The ceasefire has broadly held, although sporadic clashes continued as the United Nations struggled to implement the withdrawal of troops, a confidence-building measure meant to clear the way for a broader peace settlement after four years of war.
However, violence has escalated in other areas since the U.N. peace process started.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
