Saudi airstrike killed Yemeni imam and 16 members of his family

A Saudi airstrike has killed a Yemeni imam and at least 16 members of his extended family in the country’s northwestern Sa’ada province.

According to witnesses of the Wednesday attack, Saudi warplanes fired missiles on Saleh Abu Zainah’s home, killing him, his two sons and other family members, including four children.

“The air raid happened in the morning and because the house was made of mud, it took us until noon to be able to dig the bodies out,” said a resident who helped recover the victim’s bodies.

Meanwhile, at least nine people died during Saudi attacks on a residential area in the Hiran district of the country’s northern province of Hajjah.

Earlier, Saudi fighter jets bombed an airbase and a military college in the capital Sana’a.

Saudi Arabia has been pounding Yemen on an almost daily basis since March 2015. The campaign was launched to crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement and their allies, who took state matters into their own hands in the wake of the resignation of former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

The United Nations said Tuesday that the death toll from the 18-month Saudi war against Yemen had increased to nearly 10,000.