Saudi Arabia intercepts ballistic missiles fired from Yemen
Factory director Abdullah al-Aqel gave a higher toll of 16 dead and 10 wounded, and said all the victims were workers.
Since last March, Saudi Arabia has launched airstrikes to reinstate the ousted president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, and counter Houthi movement advances.
But an investigation conducted by coalition officials into claims that Saudi warplanes have directly targeted civilians found that the air strikes had been justified because the Iranian-backed rebels had been using civilian institutions, such as hospitals, as command posts to launch attacks against coalition forces and their allies.
A Saudi-led military coalition has been battling the rebels and their allies since March 2015 in support of Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
The al-Aqel factory, which makes crisps, is near a military equipment maintenance centre.
The statement said Wednesday’s raids included Houthi positions in Amran province, north of the capital Sanaa.
Six charred bodies were removed from the area, residents had said earlier.
Tribal sources also said air raids hit rebel positions around their northern province of Saada.
The UN-brokered talks to end the Yemeni conflict started in Kuwait on April 21.
The talks made no headway, but United Nations envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed refused to call the negotiations a failure and said he would continue to consult with both sides to arrange further meetings.
However, coalition spokesman General Ahmed Assiri said renewed coalition strikes in Yemen were justified after the failure of negotiations and a series of rebel violations of a three-month truce. Saudi Arabia’s military aggression has left close to 10,000 dead in Yemen, but the global community has so far failed to show any reaction toward the Saudi-led invasion.
He was referring to media reports that quoted medics as saying that civilians were killed in a strike on a crisp factory in the Nahda district of the capital.
Saleh al-Samad, the head of the Ansarullah movement’s Political Council, called the continued Saudi strikes and the resultant halt to air travel a flagrant violation of human rights and global law.
The UN child protection agency UNICEF has said more than 1,100 children were confirmed to have died since the conflict began past year.