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Yemen conflict: 'Deadly attack' on wedding party Yemen conflict: 'Deadly attack' on wedding party
(about 9 hours later)
At least 13 people are reported to have been killed in air strikes that hit a wedding in a rebel-held town in Yemen. At least 13 people have been killed an explosion at a wedding in a rebel-held village in Yemen, medics say.
The attack happened in Sanban, about 100km (60 miles) south-east of the capital, Sanaa, witnesses said. Residents of Sanban, about 80km (50 miles) south of the capital Sanaa, said a missile had struck a house where three brothers were getting married.
It was not clear who was behind the attack but a Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out air raids against Houthi rebels. They said the missile was fired by an aircraft from the Saudi-led coalition that has conducted air strikes against the rebel Houthi movement since March.
Last month an air strike on a wedding party near the Red Sea port of Mocha killed at least 130 people. But the coalition denied responsibility and blamed rebel propaganda.
The coalition denied it was responsible for that attack. It also again rejected claims that it bombed a wedding reception on Yemen's Red Sea Coast on 28 September, killing as many as 130 people.
The latest incident was said to have struck a wedding party being hosted by a tribal leader who is known to support the Houthi rebels. At least 25 people were reported to have been wounded. The UN says almost 4,900 people, including 2,355 civilians, have been killed in air strikes and fighting between pro-government and rebel forces in the last six months.
About 5,000 people, including 2,355 civilians, have been killed in air strikes and fighting on the ground since 26 March, when Houthi fighters and allied army units forced Yemen's internationally recognised president to flee the country. The explosion in Sanban, in Dhamar province, occurred just as the brides arrived at the house to marry the brothers in a joint ceremony, their cousin Tawfiq al-Sanabani told the New York Times.
An estimated 21 million people - or 80% of the population - require some form of humanitarian assistance and almost 1.5 million people are internally displaced. "I saw bodies lying in the yard, decapitated, charred," he said.
The Houthis - northern Shia Muslim rebels - backed by forces loyal to Yemen's previous President Ali Abdullah Saleh, forced the government into exile in March. Local medics said at least 13 people were killed, including the brothers, and 38 others wounded.
Yemen's UN-recognised President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi returned to the southern port city of Aden last month, where his government has set up a temporary base. But Safwan al-Ansi, the chief of the emergency department told the New York Times that 23 people had died and that more bodies were believed to be buried under the rubble of the house.
His forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, are pressing north towards rebel-held Sanaa. Mr Sanabani and other residents said the cause of the blast was an air strike.
Pro-rebel al-Masirah television also blamed "aggression warplanes", a reference to the coalition.
But coalition spokesman Brig Gen Ahmed al-Asiri told the AFP news agency: "We did not conduct any operation in Dhamar... No strikes there, definitely."
He accused the Houthis of employing a "new media strategy" after losing territory to pro-government militiamen and coalition troops, who have been advancing towards Sanaa since regaining control of the southern port city of Aden in July.