Airstrikes hit a crowded market in southwestern Yemen on Friday, killing at least 20 people, according to an official with the Iran-backed Houthi movement — in what would be one of the deadliest attacks since fighting resumed between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces.

Source: Associated Press

Houthi health ministry spokesperson Anees Alsabahi told Houthi-run TV Al Masirah that 15 people were also wounded in the strikes on the market in al-Waziyah, in Taiz province, and said the death toll was expected to rise. He blamed the Saudi-led coalition for the attack. The Houthi-run Saba news agency reported a higher figure, saying at least 30 people were killed in the attack on the market, which other Houthi-linked reports named as the al-Hadhara market in the al-Waziyah district.

Source: AP / Saba via Sweden Herald

Two accounts, no verification

Local authorities in Taiz acknowledged that an attack on a busy market had killed and wounded people, without providing details on the toll — but they blamed the Houthis for the incident and said no airstrikes were carried out in the area. Yemen's government armed forces said the Houthis had struck the al-Hadhara market with a ballistic missile, resulting in dozens of civilian casualties. Saudi Arabia had not responded to the Houthi accusation in the reports reviewed on Friday.

The Associated Press said it could not immediately independently verify the claims of responsibility, and no figure for the dead and wounded had been confirmed by any party not involved in the conflict by Friday evening. Every casualty figure in Friday's reports traces back to one of the warring sides.

The strike came in a week of escalating attacks around Taiz: an airstrike on a home in the same region killed seven people two days earlier, and on Monday a health centre in Lahj and another market in Taiz were hit in attacks the internationally recognised government's human rights ministry blamed on Houthi ballistic missiles, with 46 people reported dead or injured across the two sites.

Monday's attacks on the Lahj health centre and the Taiz market were reported by Awaaz Punjab earlier this week, as fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed forces spread toward Aden. Read the earlier story: missiles hit Lahj market, strikes hit Taiz

Taiz, Yemen's third-largest city, has been fought over and besieged for years, and its markets, hospitals and neighbourhoods have repeatedly been hit by shelling and strikes from both sides. The latest market attack — whoever carried it out — lands as the renewed fighting that flared this summer shows no sign of slowing, and as mediators struggle to restart talks.

Rescue and casualty details were still emerging on Friday evening. Until an independent source can confirm what hit the al-Waziyah market, the only settled facts are that it was struck, that shoppers died, and that Yemen's war has once again found its victims in a marketplace.