Deadly coalition air strike buries Yemeni rebels

An air strike by the Arab coalition targeted a building used by police and rebel forces in Yemen’s capital, killing at least 26 people and wounding 15 others, security officials have said.

The officials, who are loyal to anti-government rebels known as the Houthis, said on Monday that about 30 others were believed still to be trapped under the debris of the badly damaged building in central Sanaa.

Police vehicles parked in the facility’s courtyard were destroyed and nearby homes suffered some damage, the Associated Press news agency reported officials as saying.

The dead and wounded were policemen and Houthi rebels, officials said.

Repeated calls for comment by Al Jazeera to Brigadier-General Ahmed Asseri, spokesman for the Arab coalition forces in Yemen, remained unanswered.

Security forces sealed off the area as earth-moving equipment arrived to help with the search for bodies and survivors under the debris.

The building was partially used as a gathering point for security forces and on occasion by the Houthis as an assembly point for forces headed for deployment elsewhere in Yemen.

The air strike happened shortly before midnight on Sunday, according to the officials.

The Arab coalition began air strikes against the Houthis and their allies in March 2015, in alliance with the government of Yemen’s President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Journalist killed

Meanwhile, the Integrated Regional Information Networks, a Nairobi-based humanitarian news agency, announced the death of one of its contributors in Yemen.

In a statement it said Almigdad Mohammed Ali Mojalli, 35, was killed on Sunday just outside Sanaa in an “apparent” air strike.

Mojalli also contributed from Yemen to Western media outlets, including Voice of America and Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, said the statement.

Since last March, more than 5,800 people have been killed in Yemen.