Red Cross says 234 killed in clashes in Yemen’s Sana’a

The International Committee of the Red Cross says that as many as 234 people have been killed in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, in street fighting this month between the country’s Shiite rebels and the supporters of the slain former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The ICRC says that another 400 people have been wounded in the clashes, which first erupted last week as the alliance between the rebels and Saleh’s followers crumbled.

It’s not clear how many civilians are among the dead.

The casualty tolls provided by the ICRC are separate from those sustained in airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition which is waging war on the rebels, known as Houthis. The ICRC didn’t provide a toll from the near-daily airstrikes.

Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders says patients were evacuated from a hospital in the northern province of Hajja, which is under Houthi control, after it came under airstrikes on Sunday.

Steve Purbrick, MSF’s coordinator in Hajja, described the attack as a “deliberate disregard for medical facilities” that endangered the lives of patients and medical staff, and compromised “the care MSF can provide in the midst of intense fighting.”

— AP