Saudi-led strikes on Yemen kill 14

Saudi-led air strikes killed 14 civilians in a village market near Yemen's battleground third city Taez as a nearly three-year bombing campaign intensified, an official and medics said yesterday.

The Tuesday strikes also killed 11 rebel fighters and wounded 16 civilians, a local official loyal to the Saudi-backed government told AFP.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said the strikes were intended as air support for a local revolt against the Huthi rebels in the village of Al-Haima, northeast of Taez, but the warplanes hit the wrong target.

Taez is held by forces loyal to the Saudi-backed government but much of the surrounding countryside is in the hands of the rebels and it has been a key battleground in the country's devastating civil war.

To the west, on the Red Sea coast, Saudi-led air strikes killed 22 Huthis south of the key rebel-held port of Hodeida, military and medical sources said.

French President Emmanuel Macron called for a "complete lifting" of a blockade on Yemen in a telephone call with Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Decemebr 24, an Elysee source said yesterday.