DUBAI: Air strikes killed nine civilians and wounded at least six on Wednesday in two separate attacks in north and west Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition fighting against the Houthi movement, residents said.

The Saudi-led coalition, which has intervened in Yemen’s war since 2015 to try to restore president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power, has conducted frequent air strikes and has often hit civilians, although denies ever doing so intentionally.

The Houthis, a movement derived from northern Yemen’s Zaidi Shia Muslim community, have controlled much of Yemen including the capital Sanaa since driving Hadi out three years ago.

Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Muslim allies — including the United Arab Emirates — say the Houthis are aligned with Shia Iran and pose a threat to the region.

Residents said four civilians had been killed in an air strike in the suburbs of the northern city of Saada, the main Houthi stronghold.

Five girls were killed in another airstrike that targeted a field in the west of the country, in the western Hodeidah district.

On Tuesday, airstrikes killed five civilians in north of the country.

The war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than two million and driven the country — already the poorest on the Arabian Peninsula — to the verge of widespread famine.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2018