Airstrike kills 25 at qat farm, say Yemeni medical officials

SANAA — Yemeni medical officials say an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels has killed 25 men who had been growing qat.

The director of the medical authority in the rebel-dominated Saada province, Abdullaiz al-Azi, says yesterday that the men, who officials believe were civilians, were killed when a house was targeted in the village of Baqqa on Saturday.

Yemen has been engulfed in civil war since September 2014 when the rebels swept into the capital of Sanaa and overthrew the internationally recognized government. The Saudi-led, US-backed coalition opposes them, but the Iran-backed rebels still control the capital and much of the north. Peace efforts have repeatedly failed.