Saudi Airstrike in Yemen Kills 38 People Celebrating a Wedding

    A man walks on the rubble of a wedding hall destroyed by an earlier Saudi-led airstrike in Yemen, that one in July. (Hani Mohammed / AP)

Thirty-eight revelers are dead after Saudi-led airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Shiite rebels hit a wedding party Monday. At least 2,100 civilians have been killed in the conflict in Yemen so far, the United Nations says.

The Associated Press reports:

The strikes hit the celebration in al-Wahga, a village near the strategic Strait of Bab al-Mandab, said [Yemeni] officials, who remain neutral in the conflict that has splintered Yemen. …

The strikes, a senior government official said, were “a mistake.” Many of the victims were women and children, according to several villagers.

Further details and circumstances that led to the wedding party being mistakenly hit were not immediately known.

Yemen’s conflict pits the rebels, known as Houthis, and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against the Saudi-backed and internationally recognized government. The U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the rebels since March, often hitting civilians as well.

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— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.