Yemen market bombing kills 20 as Qatar tries to avert new US-Iran clash

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AIR strikes killed at least 20 people at a market in south-west Yemen today as the Saudi-led coalition launched new bombing raids.

Ansar Allah, as the Houthi movement which swept to power in Yemen in 2014 is formally known, said another 15 people were wounded in the bombing of al-Waziyah market in the province of Taiz.

Taiz is a current battleground with the Houthis controlling most of the area and laying siege to the capital, which is still in the hands of the Yemeni government in exile based in Saudi Arabia.

Houthi forces have advanced rapidly this autumn, taking control of the strategic Red Sea port of Mokha and areas near the Bab el-Mandeb strait, which links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.

Their attacks on Israel-linked shipping in retaliation for the invasion of Gaza, and subsequently on Saudi shipping amid the fallout from the US war on their ally Iran, have seen a truce agreed in 2022 with Saudi-led forces fall apart and all-out war resume, with missiles even hitting the Saudi capital Riyadh for the first time.

Speculation that the Iran war too is about to reignite is growing as US government sources anonymously briefed Fox News that Washington plans to resume strikes on Iran on Monday.

But President Donald Trump held talks on de-escalating the war with Qatar today. Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim “stressed the importance of continuing dialogue and adopting diplomatic means to resolve disputes, sparing the region further escalation,” a Qatari government statement said.

Qatar’s role as a mediator has seen it named one of four countries — alongside Russia, China and Iraq — whose vessels Iran permits to pass freely through the otherwise blockaded Strait of Hormuz.

The unprovoked US-Israeli war on Iran that began in February provoked Iranian retaliatory fire against US bases across the Gulf, causing billions in damage and forcing the US to relocate thousands of troops. The Pentagon itself acknowledged shortages of interceptors and air defence systems resulting from their intensive use to block Iranian strikes in the first phase of the war, which ended in an April ceasefire, but Mr Trump has repeatedly denied this.