Airstrikes Near Yemen’s Capital Sanaa Kill at Least 27, Mostly Women and Children, Houthis Say

Airstrikes hit homes in a village near Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on Saturday, killing at least 27 people and wounding 36 others, most of them women and children, according to Yemen’s Houthi-run Health Ministry. It was one of the deadliest reported attacks since fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis resumed in July, and it came at the end of a week in which the war’s violence spread in both directions across the border.

The strikes hit al-Shariya, a village about 15 kilometres north-east of Sanaa, in the Bani Hushaysh area. Houthi media blamed warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition. Saudi Arabia did not immediately comment, and neither Reuters nor The Associated Press could independently verify the Houthis’ account. That uncertainty matters: in a war where both sides control the flow of information from their own territory, the first reports of any attack are almost always claims, not confirmed facts. What is not in doubt is that Yemen’s war, quiet for years, is now killing civilians again at a fast rate.

What happened in al-Shariya

The strikes fell on Saturday, 7 November 2026. According to the Houthi-run Health Ministry, they hit houses in al-Shariya, a farming village in Bani Hushaysh, a Houthi stronghold east of the capital. The ministry said most of those killed were women and children.

The death toll climbed through the day. Local Houthi authorities first reported 22 dead and 30 wounded; by the end of Saturday the figures had risen to at least 27 killed and 36 wounded, with rescue work still going on. The Houthi-run Saba news agency said operations to recover victims from the rubble were continuing, and that aircraft had targeted paramedics with two further strikes while victims were being pulled out. Chinese state news agency Xinhua, citing Houthi-run al-Masirah TV, reported that about six houses were destroyed.

Abdul-Aziz al-Dailami, director of Sehatuna Hospital in Sanaa, described a scene in which rescue workers themselves became victims. He told Reuters that many victims remained trapped under the rubble, including first responders.

“The strikes keep coming. Just as rescuers arrive, another strike hits. We have even lost some of our own medical responders, who have been martyred,” al-Dailami said.

He added that the hospital had received a number of wounded people in very critical condition, with injuries to the head, chest and legs, as well as fractures.

A spokesman for the Houthi-run Health Ministry, Anees al-Asbahi, told The Associated Press that the death toll was expected to rise as search and rescue efforts continued. Al Masirah TV broadcast footage it said was filmed in al-Shariya, showing smoke rising from a struck site, piles of debris and wounded people in hospital.

Who is saying what — and what is not confirmed

Almost everything known about Saturday’s strikes comes from Houthi sources: the Health Ministry, the Saba news agency and al-Masirah TV. The Houthis blame Saudi warplanes. Saudi Arabia’s Center for International Communication did not immediately comment, telling Reuters it would look into the inquiries, and Saudi Arabia’s Information Ministry did not immediately reply to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

That does not mean the reports are false. It means they are one-sided, and readers should treat the details with care until independent reporting is possible. The Houthis control Sanaa and the north of the country, so outside journalists and aid workers cannot easily reach a village like al-Shariya to check what happened. The casualty figures — 27 dead, 36 wounded — are the Health Ministry’s figures, and the claim that paramedics were deliberately targeted comes from Saba.

What can be confirmed independently is the pattern around the strikes. The Saudi-led coalition said on Saturday that it had intercepted and destroyed a Houthi missile launched towards Riyadh province. Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said later on Saturday that the group had carried out six missile and drone operations against Saudi targets, including Aramco oil facilities, Riyadh airport and Saudi military positions on both sides of the border. Saree also claimed Saudi forces had carried out 105 airstrikes and missile attacks on Sanaa and seven other Yemeni provinces over the past 24 hours. Those claims, too, could not be independently verified.

The Houthis put the civilian death toll over the past two days at 55, counting Saturday’s strikes and the attack on a market in Taiz province the day before.

A week of escalation

Saturday’s strikes did not come out of nowhere. They were the latest step in a week in which attacks crossed the Saudi-Yemeni border in both directions, and in which civilians on both sides of the front line were put at risk.

On Friday, an attack on a crowded market in Taiz province, in south-western Yemen, killed at least 30 people. The Houthis said Saudi airstrikes were to blame. Yemen’s government forces accused the Houthis of firing a ballistic missile at the site. That attack is covered in our earlier report on the Taiz market attack.

Earlier in the same week, Saudi air defences intercepted drones and missiles aimed at Makkah, Medina, Najran and Riyadh, including a Houthi cruise missile targeting Riyadh on Saturday. The Houthis have consistently denied targeting the holy cities of Makkah and Medina, but have openly claimed attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and military sites. Our report on the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia has the full timeline.

The pattern is now clear: the Houthis launch missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi-led coalition answers with airstrikes in Houthi-held territory, saying it is targeting the group’s military infrastructure. Civilians are caught in the middle, in Yemen’s markets and villages and in Saudi cities under air-raid warnings.

Why the fighting restarted

Yemen’s war is 12 years old, but it had been mostly quiet. A United Nations-brokered truce in 2022 largely halted attacks between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis, who control Sanaa and much of northern Yemen. That truce held, more or less, for years.

It fell apart in July 2026. Yemen slipped back into open war between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government, which is based in the south and east of the country. Reuters describes the renewed fighting as a spillover from the wider conflict between the United States and Iran, which has been running since February. The Houthis are aligned with Iran; Saudi Arabia backs Yemen’s internationally recognised government.

Since July, the fighting has spread. The Houthis have launched missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports and oil facilities, while Riyadh has carried out airstrikes in Yemen in support of its Yemeni allies. Each side says it is responding to the other. Each round of strikes makes the next one more likely.

There is also a regional build-up under way. Yemeni officials told the AFP news agency that thousands of Syrian troops are set to deploy to Saudi Arabia and Yemen, with some already on the ground, after Syria and Saudi Arabia signed cooperation agreements this week, including a defence deal. Syria’s official SANA news agency later cited a diplomatic source insisting Damascus had not sent troops to Yemen “at this time”. A source from Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, the country’s top governing body, told AFP that Syria would send as many as 3,000 troops. Syria is also reported to be considering joining the mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan.

The human cost

Behind the military claims and counter-claims is a humanitarian crisis that was already one of the worst in the world before the fighting resumed.

Yemen is the Arab world’s most impoverished country, and 12 years of war have fragmented it. Hospitals, water systems and food supplies were already stretched thin. The renewed fighting has made things worse. The International Organization for Migration said in October that the number of people displaced since the latest round of fighting began had climbed to more than 200,000.

Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, shows what that means on the ground. Around a million people are trapped there as fighting closes in, with the United Nations warning that time is running out. Our earlier report on the siege of Taiz explains the situation in detail.

When airstrikes hit homes in a village, the damage is not only counted in deaths. Families lose their houses, their food stores and their water tanks. Hospitals that are already short of medicine and staff must treat the wounded. Rescue workers who go in after a strike risk being hit by the next one — which is exactly what the hospital director in Sanaa described on Saturday.

Children bear a large share of the cost. The Health Ministry said most of those killed in al-Shariya were women and children. That pattern repeats across Yemen’s war: the people least able to protect themselves are the most likely to be hurt when fighting reaches homes, markets and schools.

What happens next

Several things will decide whether Saturday’s strikes lead to more escalation or to a pause.

First, the casualty figures. The death toll from al-Shariya is expected to rise as rescue workers clear the rubble, and the Houthis’ claim of 55 civilian deaths over two days will be tested against whatever independent reporting emerges. If the toll rises further, pressure will grow on both sides to explain themselves.

Second, the Houthi response. The group has already claimed six retaliatory operations against Saudi targets. If more missiles and drones are launched at Saudi cities and oil facilities, the coalition is likely to answer with more airstrikes — the cycle that has defined the past week.

Third, Saudi Arabia’s position. Riyadh has not commented on the al-Shariya strikes. Whether it confirms or denies them, and whether it changes its targeting, will shape how the story is understood internationally.

Fourth, the wider region. The reported deployment of Syrian troops, the US–Iran conflict that has been running since February, and the mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan all mean that Yemen’s war is no longer a local conflict. A miscalculation anywhere in that web could widen the fighting further.

Fifth, diplomacy. The 2022 truce was brokered by the United Nations, and the UN still has a presence in Yemen. But with fighting this intense, and with both sides claiming the other started it, a new ceasefire looks distant. The immediate question is simpler: whether either side is willing to stop hitting civilian areas while the talking goes on.

Why this matters

It is easy to read a report of 27 deaths in a village most people have never heard of and move on. But al-Shariya matters for three reasons.

First, it shows that the truce is gone. For years, Yemen’s war was mostly frozen. Now airstrikes are hitting homes near the capital and markets in the south-west, and missiles are flying at Riyadh. The war is active again, and civilians are paying for it.

Second, it shows how quickly a local war can become a regional one. Yemen’s fighting is now tangled up with the US–Iran conflict, with Syrian troop deployments, and with a defence pact that includes Pakistan. What happens in a village east of Sanaa can affect oil prices, shipping, and the safety of millions of people who live and work in Saudi Arabia — including a large Pakistani workforce.

Third, it is a reminder that casualty figures are not just numbers. Behind the figure of 27 dead are families who lost their homes in a single morning, a hospital director who watched his own medical responders die, and a village that will take years to rebuild — if it is ever rebuilt at all.

Frequently asked questions

Where did the strikes happen?

In al-Shariya, a village in the Bani Hushaysh area about 15 kilometres north-east of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the strikes hit homes there on Saturday, 7 November 2026.

How many people were killed and wounded?

At least 27 people were killed and 36 wounded, according to the Houthi-run Health Ministry. Most of those killed were women and children, the ministry said. The toll rose through the day from an initial report of 22 dead and 30 wounded.

Who carried out the strikes?

Houthi media blamed warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition. Saudi Arabia did not immediately comment, and the claims have not been independently verified by Reuters or The Associated Press.

Is this part of a wider escalation?

Yes. A day earlier, an attack on a market in Taiz province killed at least 30 people. Earlier in the week, Saudi air defences intercepted Houthi drones and missiles aimed at Makkah, Medina, Najran and Riyadh. Fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government resumed in July 2026, ending a UN-brokered truce from 2022.

What is the humanitarian situation in Yemen?

Yemen has been at war for 12 years and faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The International Organization for Migration said in October that more than 200,000 people have been displaced since the latest round of fighting began.

Conclusion

Saturday’s airstrikes on al-Shariya killed at least 27 people, most of them women and children, according to the Houthis — and neither the claim nor the death toll has been independently verified, because Saudi Arabia has not commented and outside reporters cannot reach the village. What is certain is that Yemen’s war is back in full force: markets and villages are being hit, missiles are flying at Saudi cities, and more than 200,000 people have already been displaced since the fighting resumed in July.

The next days will show whether the two sides pull back or push further. For the people of al-Shariya, that question is already answered: their homes are rubble, their hospital is full of the critically wounded, and their rescuers are among the dead.

Sources

• Reuters, via Deccan Herald — https://www.deccanherald.com/amp/story/middle-east/at-least-27-killed-36-wounded-in-alleged-saudi-arabia-airstrikes-near-yemens-capital-4211652
• Dawn — https://www.dawn.com/news/2042972
• The Associated Press, via Kashmir Independent Media Service — https://kimskashmir.com/at-least-27-killed-36-wounded-in-airstrikes-near-yemens-capital-houthis-say/
• Xinhua, via China Daily — https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202611/08/WS6aefbcc7e4b03ebf8519b17c.html
• Reuters, via The Standard — https://www.thestandard.com.hk/world/article/347841/Houthi-run-health-ministry-says-airstrikes-it-blames-on-Saudi-Arabia-kill-27-near-Yemen-capital

This article is for general information and education only. It is not legal or financial advice.