Saudi-led airstrike hits diary factory in Yemen, 37 killed

ADEN, Yemen - At least 37 workers of a dairy factory were killed when an overnight airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition forces mistook its target in Yemen's western port city of al-Hodyada, a government official told Xinhua Wednesday.

"The Saudi-led airstrike accidentally bombed a factory of diary and milk productions located in al-Hodyada province, killing at least 37 of its workers and causing large destruction late on Tuesday night," the local government official based in al-Hodyada said on condition of anonymity.

Witnesses told Xinhua that "military warplanes hovered for a while over the city then fired missiles that left dozens of innocent civilians and workers of the diary factory killed and injured on the spot."

A local medic said "the casualty figures may rise in the next hours as many people were burned and gravely wounded in the attack. "

The death toll in the airstrikes that started on March 26 rises to 120 while about 430 people were wounded after the dairy factory was bombed.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition forces launched airstrikes on military bases allied with Houthis in and around the southern Aden province on Wednesday morning, with no immediate reports of casualties.

Local residents said that fierce fighting erupted Wednesday between tribal militia and pro-Houthi forces in Aden's neighborhood of KhorMaksar using tanks and artillery shelling.

Security sharply deteriorated in Yemen since early March when conflicts erupted in several provinces in the country's southern regions.

The Shiite Houthi group launched attacks on Aden city, which President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi declared as the temporary capital after he fled weeks of house arrest by the Houthis in Sanaa.

Last Thursday, a Saudi-led coalition started airstrikes on Houthi targets in Sanaa and other cities, saying the multinational action was to protect Hadi's legitimacy and force the Houthis to retreat from cities it seized since September 2014.