Houthis and Yemeni government blame each other for Taiz market attack that killed 30

Yemen’s Houthis and the internationally recognised government have blamed each other for a deadly attack on a market in Taiz province earlier on Friday. The Houthis said Saudi aircraft carried out the strikes, while the government accused the group of firing a ballistic missile at the market and called the attack a “war crime”. “Saudi enemy aircraft targeted the market in Al-Waziya city with several strikes,” Houthi health ministry spokesman Anis al-Asbahi said, according to the Houthi-run Saba news agency. The group’s military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said the aircraft had taken off from Saudi Arabia’s Khamis Mushait base. Meanwhile, local authorities in Taiz blamed “indiscriminate Houthi missile fire” and denied any air strikes had taken place. The Houthi health ministry put the toll at 30 dead and eight wounded, and said rescue teams were still searching for bodies under the rubble at the market, which lies in a Houthi-held area of the province. Government forces said on Friday that they had recaptured several areas of Taiz from the Houthis. The province lies near the Bab al-Mandab strait, a key oil shipping route.