Air raid on Yemen funeral kills eight

An air strike killed eight women and a child at a funeral reception near the Yemeni capital, witnesses said yesterday, adding to the conflict's mounting civilian death toll.

At least 10 other women were wounded in the overnight raid on the district of Arhab, 40 kilometres north of Sanaa, medics sent to the site told AFP.

The Iran-backed Huthi Shia rebels, who seized large parts of the country including the capital in 2014, accused the Saudi-backed Arab coalition supporting the Yemeni government of carrying out the strike.

A coalition statement sent to AFP said the group was "investigating the reports" that civilians were killed in the raid near Sanaa.

It was not immediately clear if the house was deliberately targeted. The home had been built on a plot of land with no other buildings visible in the immediate vicinity.

Yemen's war pits the internationally recognised government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi against Huthi insurgents allied with forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The Saudi-led Arab coalition that intervened in Yemen in March 2015 on the side of Hadi says that it does not target civilians. But it has faced repeated allegations of deliberately striking weddings, funerals, schools and hospitals.

In October the coalition admitted to killing 140 people in an air strike on a funeral in Sanaa, blaming the deaths on "incorrect information". It had initially denied involvement.