Many casualties from air strike on mourners in Yemen

Saudi-led coalition aircraft fired rockets at mourners for the father of the interior minister in the Houthi-dominated Yemeni government on Saturday, causing many casualties, witnesses and medics said.

They said a missile tore through a hall in the south of the capital Sanaa where a wake for the father of Interior Minister Jalal al-Roweishan was being held, destroying the building.

There was no immediate comment from the Saudi-led coalition on the report.

The minister's father had died of natural causes on Friday. It was not immediately clear if the minister had been hurt in the attack.

Witnesses said the attack came soon after the wake began, with at least two missiles being fired. One hit the building while the other fell nearby.

They described ambulances ferrying casualties from the scene, where a plume of black smoke rose into the sky. A medic said there were mutilated and charred bodies, but gave no figures.

One hospital said it had treated at least 20 people and sent them home.

Hospitals in Sanaa issued an appeal through the Houthi-run Saba news agency for blood to save the casualties.

Roweishan sided with the Iran-aligned Houthi movement when President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi fled Yemen after the Houthis advanced on his headquarters in the southern port city of Aden in March 2015.

The Saudi-led coalition has been providing air support for Hadi's forces in a civil war that has killed more than 10,000 people since March 2015.

Fighting has intensified since August when U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait ended without an agreement.

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