Houthi armed forces in Yemen blow up house, killing couple and 7 children

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels blew up a house on Tuesday in a town southeast of the capital Sanaa, killing at least nine people from the same family, officials and residents said.

A day earlier, two Houthi militants were killed in an ambush allegedly set by the owner of the house, Ibrahim al-Zalei.

According to residents Ahmed Baydawy and Arman Mahmoud, the deceased, a pair of parents and their seven children, were killed in the explosion. Rescue workers and civilians were trying to rescue others buried under the rubble, they said.

Al-Bedawi and Mahmoud said the Houthis laid siege to the house and its surrounding area in the Ladiya district of Al-Bayda province early on Tuesday, then set up a booby trap inside the house and blew it up, targeting nearby neighbors. Buildings were severely damaged.

The Houthi interior ministry said in a statement that the bombing of the house was an “irresponsible response” by security forces who “excessively used force in an illegal manner” in their hunt for the suspects behind Monday’s ambush. It is said that an investigation committee has been set up to bring those involved to justice.

The ministry did not provide a death toll after the house explosion but confirmed the death toll.

Yemen has been mired in civil war since Houthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee to the south and later to Saudi Arabia.

The Houthis have imposed a repressive rule in Sanaa and other areas of Yemen they control. They suppressed any possible signs of rebellion among the population, imprisoned thousands, and confiscated large tracts of land from those deemed dissident.

A Saudi-led coalition entered the war the following year in an attempt to restore government power. The war has essentially reached a stalemate and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including militants and civilians, and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands.

since the beginning of the year October 7 Israel-Hamas War, Houthis make headlines for their actions Merchant ship attacked in Red Seacausing trade that normally flows through key corridors to be rerouted.