Saudi-led air strikes on Yemen’s Taiz kill 43: Saba news agency

Saudi-led coalition warships were said to be en route to the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah as coalition air strikes pounded Houthi rebel targets in the city.

The United Nations says the war in Yemen has killed a total of almost 4,500 people, many of them civilians. The governor and other officials who were present at the time were not hurt in the apparent assassination attempt.

Some 400 children have been killed and more than 600 injured in a conflict driven by Saudi Arabia’s irrational fear of growing Iranian influence in Yemen.

The Saudi-led marketing campaign of bombardment started nearly 5 months in the past with the said goal of restoring Hadi’s authorities.

“If we do not receive the additional access that is required to meet the needs of those who are affected by this ongoing conflict, if we cannot support the commercial markets by ensuring that the ports are open and providing food to ensure that those who have resources can buy the food that is necessary, and if we do not see increased donor support, we are facing the flawless storm in Yemen”, she said.

The Obama administration is providing intelligence, munitions and midair refueling to coalition aircraft, and U.S. warships have helped enforce a blockade in the Gulf of Aden and southern Arabian Sea intended to prevent weapons shipments from Iran to the Houthis.

Shaabi said other ships were expected in Aden, the impoverished country’s main port and capital of the former South Yemen, in coming days.

In June, the UN launched an appeal for $1.6bn (£1bn) to allow it to assist 11.7 million people – just over half of those in need.

At one hospital, lights flickered as generators ran low on fuel, patients lay on the floor and cardboard was used as mattresses, reported a United Nations official after a trip to Yemen.

On July 19, in one of the deadliest attacks by pro-Houthi forces, mortar fire killed several dozen civilians in the Dar Saad district in Aden.

The dead bodies of 50 Huthi rebels and allied troops were retrieved from the city on Monday, the sources in Taez said, adding that 31 pro-government fighters were also killed.

Meanwhile, in the port city of Aden, witnesses on the Gold Mohur beach said that on Wednesday a masked group of armed men led six men in orange jumpsuits with their hands tied behind their backs on to a boat that was subsequently blown up. Many others are believed to have been injured or killed in the past week in air strikes, shelling and fighting in densely populated areas.

The Houthi movement says it is trying to root out corruption and defeat Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda.

“If the warring parties continue to carry out heavy shelling and air strikes, more people will die”, Doctors Without Borders said in a statement.