20 Yemen civilians including women and children killed in Saudi-led air strike: UN

Survivors said a vehicle packed with families fleeing battles between government forces and Houthi rebels near the city of Taiz was hit on Tuesday.

Officials said many of those killed were from the same family, including women and children. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said it was "shocked and saddened" by the deaths in the Mawzaa district, where civilians had been displaced by intensified hostilities in the nearby port of Mocha.

"Nowhere in Yemen safe for civilians," said UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo.

"Each of Yemen's mainland governorates is affected by conflict and tens thousands have been killed and injured.

"We have been advocating incessantly for respect of international humanitarian law and protection of civilians in Yemen. More must be done."

Mantoo told The Independent it was a "travesty" that civilians displaced by the conflict are being trapped in areas themselves hit by violence, with numerous sieges underway.

More than a quarter of all men, women and children forced from their homes in Yemen are from Taiz governorate, but it also hosts 15 per cent of the country's internally displaced people.

International rights groups have accused the Saudi-led coalition of bombing civilian gatherings, markets, hospitals, and residential areas across Yemen since the beginning of its campaign in support of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi in 2015.

Saudi Arabia is using British-manufactured weapons in the offensive, sparking failed legal challenge by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade in the High Court.

Judges found that the Saudi-led coalition was "not deliberately targeting civilians" and alleged massacres were under investigation, concluding that it had not been established that there was "a clear risk that the items might be used in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law".

Dr Abdullah al-Rabeeah, a former Saudi minister and now head of the country's state aid agency, told The Independent "there is no intention whatsoever to bombard or kill civilians".

"When there is a conflict there will be mistakes, but we account for our mistakes and apologise for them, and try to compensate those who have been hurt," he added, claiming the autocracy was also the "number one donor" for aid and development

in Yemen. AGENCIES