Saudi Arabia has carried out a series of lethal air raids across the border with Yemen, killing 16 civilians and wounding 19 others, Yemen's Shia rebels said on Monday. In one of 25 raids launched on Monday, six civilians were killed and six others were wounded, women and children among them, according to a statement issued by the rebels, who Riyadh has been battling since early November.
Ten other civilians were killed in a market hit by one of the air raids carried out on Sunday, the rebels said in a separate statement posted on their website. The Shia rebels, also known as Zaidis, have said they would withdraw from Saudi territory if Riyadh halts attacks on their fighters, launched after the kingdom accused them of killing a border guard and occupying two Saudi villages.
A rebel spokesman said later that the insurgents repelled two ground attacks that Yemeni and Saudi forces launched on Monday against their positions near the Harf Sufyan region of Omran province, north of Sanaa.
"The attack was repulsed and five army tanks were destroyed," the spokesman told AFP, adding Saudi troops also stormed Jebel Rumaih, on the mountainous border, "under cover of intense artillery." The rebels first rose up in 2004. The Yemeni government launched a major offensive in August to try to end the uprising. Aid groups say more than 150,000 people have been driven from their homes.
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