Explosion
at Yemen factory kills at least 25: residents, medics
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[April 01, 2015]
ADEN (Reuters) - An explosion at a
dairy factory in Yemen's Hodaida port killed at least 25 workers,
medical sources said, with conflicting accounts attributing the blast to
an air strike by a Saudi-led alliance or to a rocket landing from a
nearby army base.
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The incident would appear to be one of the biggest cases of
civilian deaths since a Saudi-led coalition began an air campaign
against Houthi militia on March 26.
The 26September website of Yemen's factionalized army, which mostly
sides with the Houthis, said 37 workers were killed and 80 wounded
at the dairy and oils factory "during the aggressive air strikes
which targeted the two factories last night."
Medical sources in the city said 25 workers at the plant had been
killed at the factory, which was located near an army camp loyal to
former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a Houthi ally.
Residents and witnesses contacted by Reuters said the air strikes
had targeted the factory shortly after midnight on Wednesday. Others
said rockets fired from the base - possibly as retaliation against
the bombings - hit the factory.
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The operation by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Muslim states aims to
prevent the Houthis and former Saleh from winning control of the
country. They instead want to reinstate Saudi-backed President
Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Air strikes overnight hit Houthi positions along the Saudi border in
Yemen's far North, an army bases in the central highlands, air
defense infrastructure in the eastern Marib province, and a coast
guard position near Hodaida.
After the week-long campaign targeting Houthis and forces loyal to
Saleh, the coalition has failed to secure Hadi's control over his
last remaining enclave in the southern port of Aden a key aim of the
campaign.
INDIAN NATIONALS EVACUATED
The sound of gunfire and several large blasts were heard in Aden
throughout the night, a Reuters reporter said. Videos posted online,
whose authenticity Reuters could not immediately confirm, appeared
to show fighting at an army base loyal to Saleh in the northeast of
the city.
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A raid at a coastal defense station at Maidi port in Hajja province
north of Hodaida killed six soldiers, workers there said, while
further strikes hit an army camp in Sanaa and a government facility
in Saadeh in the north of Yemen.
In New York, UNICEF said late on Tuesday that at least 62 children
had been killed and 30 wounded in fighting over the past week, and
the United Nations said an attack on a refugee camp in northern
Yemen, which medics blamed on an air strike, broke international
law.
An Indian naval patrol boat picked up nearly 350 Indian nationals
from the port of Aden on Tuesday night, and was expected to arrive
in Djibouti during the day, a spokesman for the Ministry of External
Affairs said.
More than 4,000 Indians - more than half of them nurses - are
believed to have been in Yemen when Saudi Arabia launched air
strikes last week.
Negotiations are under way to allow evacuation flights into Sanaa,
where the Indian community is concentrated, and receive permission
to evacuate more from Hodaida, the spokesman said.
(Reporting By Mohammed Ghobari in Cairo and Mohammed Mukhashaf and
Sami Aboudi in Aden; Writing by Angus McDowall, Editing by William
Maclean and Jon Boyle)
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