Rival accusations over Taiz deaths cast doubt on Yemen toll of 20

Rival accounts of civilian deaths in Yemen’s Taiz province on Saturday, 17 October, blame different forces for attacks in the same locality. That leaves a reported total of 20 deaths across Taiz and Dhamar in doubt: the Taiz figures may describe some of the same victims. [1] [2] [5]

The Houthi-aligned Saba news agency said four Saudi air strikes hit homes in Humayr al-Jabal, in Maqbanah district, killing nine people, including a girl, and injuring 16. Houthi-aligned health authorities later said a woman and a girl were among the nine killed. [1] [6]

The local authority in Taiz gave a sharply different account. In a statement carried by the news agency of Yemen’s internationally recognised government, it blamed Houthi shelling of al-Maqdi village in Humayr al-Jabal. Its preliminary toll was eight civilians killed, including women and children, and six injured. [2]

Nieuws.nl, carrying a report attributed to ANP/AFP, presented the two Taiz counts alongside three deaths in Dhamar as a total of 20. Both Taiz statements concern the same area on the same date, so they do not establish that 17 different people died there. Nor does the shared location prove that the accounts describe precisely the same victims or only one attack. [5] [7]

In Dhamar, Houthi-aligned health authorities said on Friday, 16 October, that three children from one family had been killed in an attack on houses in Dhooran Aness. They initially reported nine people injured; an update published early on Saturday raised that figure to 17 without changing the reported death toll. They accused Saudi Arabia of using cluster munitions in Dhamar. [3] [4]

The Houthi account of Taiz described air strikes but did not identify cluster munitions there, although the Nieuws.nl report placed the allegation with the Taiz attack. The Convention on Cluster Munitions prohibits their use by states party to it; a March 2026 status list names both Saudi Arabia and Yemen as non-parties. That status does not settle whether an attack breached other laws of war. Whether cluster munitions were used in Dhamar, who caused the deaths in Taiz and how many distinct people died there remain unresolved. [1] [5] [9] [10]