Yemen war: Saudi airstrikes on Taiz homes kill at least 12 civilians, half of them children, Houthi officials say

At least 12 civilians, six of them children, have been killed in Saudi airstrikes on Houthi-held parts of Yemen, according to the health ministry of the Houthi-run government in Sanaa.

Most of the deaths were in Taiz province. Houthi-controlled media said a strike on a family house in Maqbanah district killed seven people, two of them children, and injured 13 others, seven of them children. Another strike on a home in Hayfan district reportedly killed a woman and three children. A child was also said to have died in Saada province near the Saudi border.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed that Saudi forces carried out 104 air and missile strikes in 24 hours on eight provinces, including the capital, Sanaa, and Marib. Some Houthi-aligned outlets have since put the death toll higher. These figures come from one side of the war and could not be independently confirmed.

Saudi Arabia has not commented on the reports of civilian deaths. The Saudi-led coalition said it shot down a Houthi missile fired towards the Medina region.

Yemen's war flared up again in September, when the Iran-backed Houthis launched an offensive against the Saudi-supported government around Taiz. The government and Saudi Arabia hit back in October with a campaign to retake Sanaa, and the Houthis have fired missiles and drones at Saudi cities and oil sites. Aid groups say hundreds of thousands of Yemenis have been forced from their homes, and in Taiz only a handful of emergency maternity hospitals are still partly working.