At least 24 civilians were killed in an air raid on Sunday on a market in northern Yemen, a medical official and witnesses said, blaming the Saudi-led coalition battling Yemeni rebels.

Most of the casualties worked in the Mashnaq market in the rebel-controlled Saada province on the Saudi border, an official at a nearby hospital told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Witnesses said the market was a centre for trafficking in qat, a leafy stimulant plant that is widely used in Yemen but illegal in Saudi Arabia. One of the witnesses said some of the casualties had “just returned from a trip across the border”.

The Saudi-led Arab military coalition has been accused of air strikes in Yemen for more than two years against areas controlled by the Shia Houthi rebels.

Frequently targeted

Saada itself has come under heavy bombing since 2015, when the coalition intervened to support the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in its fight against the Iran-backed Houthis.

The coalition claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on the rebel-held capital Sana’a in October 2016 which targeted a gathering of mourners at a funeral ceremony, killing more than 140 people. The Houthis have also accused the Saudi-led coalition of a raid last month that killed 23 civilians, including women and children, in the southwestern city of Taez. The Saudi-led coalition has not claimed responsibility for that attack.