Five women killed in Yemen wedding blast
SMA NEWS – Hodeidah
Five women were killed when a shell hit a wedding venue in Yemen’s Hodeidah city on New Year’s Day, officials said on Saturday.
Government blames Houthis for the deaths of the blast in the port city, which came just two days after at least 26 people were killed in explosions that rocked the airport of the southern city of Aden as members of a newly formed government got off a plane from Saudi Arabia.
The wedding hall was near Hodeidah’s airport, a front line between the warring sides, on the edge of the rebel Houthi-held city.
“The explosion struck at the entrance to a complex of several wedding halls,” a witness told AFP, as a party was being held for a newly married Houthi supporter.
General Sadek Douid, the government representative in a UN-sponsored joint commission overseeing a truce, condemned the Hodeidah blast, which also left seven wounded, including children, as “an odious crime committed by the Houthis against civilians”.
