5 killed in landmine blasts in Yemen's Hodeidah-Xinhua

5 killed in landmine blasts in Yemen's Hodeidah

Source: Xinhua

Editor: huaxia

2022-05-29 23:08:58

ADEN, Yemen, May 29 (Xinhua) -- A total of five people, including a child and a woman, were killed in three explosions of landmines laid previously in Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Sunday, a military official told Xinhua.

"The blasts were caused by landmines laid previously by the Houthis during the past years," the local military source said on condition of anonymity.

The official clarified that the first explosion occurred in the southern part of Hodeidah and struck a motorcycle, killing three people, including a child, at the site.

In another incident, the official said that "a woman died as a result of an explosion caused by an explosive device in Al Hali district of Hodeidah."

Elsewhere in Hodeidah, an explosion of a landmine killed a person and injured his child while they were heading back to their residential area in Hays district of Hodeidah, according to the official.

Demining experts in Yemen say that more than a million landmines have been laid since the outbreak of the civil war in late 2014, when the Iranian-backed Houthi militia took control of several northern provinces and forced the Saudi-backed Yemeni government out of the capital, Sanaa.

According to the latest statistics published on the website of the Saudi Project for Landmine Clearance (MASAM) in Yemen, the project has so far removed 339,431 landmines from all over Yemen since mid-2018.