US says blast near Yemen UNESCO World Heritage Site caused by Houthi missile

The US military said, on Thursday, a blast on Sunday near a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Yemen’s capital city of Sana’a was caused by a Houthi missile and not an American air strike, Reuters reports.

The Houthi-run Health Ministry said a dozen people were killed in the US strike in a neighbourhood of Sana’a. The Old City of Sana’a is a recognised UNESCO World Heritage Site.

President Donald Trump ordered the intensification of US strikes on Yemen last month, with his administration saying they will continue assaulting Iran-backed Houthi rebels until they stop attacking Red Sea shipping.

A US Central Command spokesperson said the damage and casualties described by Yemen’s Houthi officials “likely did occur” but they were not caused by a US attack. The closest US strike that night was more than three miles (5 km) away, the spokesperson said.

The US military assessed that the damage was caused by a “Houthi air defence missile” based on a review of “local reporting, including videos documenting Arabic writing on the missile’s fragments at the market”, the spokesperson said, adding the Houthis subsequently arrested Yemenis. He did not provide evidence.

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A Houthi official was quoted by the New York Times as saying the American denial was an attempt to smear the Houthis.

Recent US strikes have killed dozens, including 74 at an oil terminal on Thursday, in what was the deadliest strike in Yemen under Trump so far, according to the local Health Ministry.

The US military says the strikes aim to cut off the Houthi group’s military and economic capabilities.

Rights advocates have raised concerns about civilian killings and three Democratic senators, including Senator Chris Van Hollen, wrote to Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, on Thursday demanding accounting for loss of civilian lives.

The Houthis have taken control of swathes of Yemen over the past decade.

Since November 2023, they have launched drone and missile attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, saying they were targeting ships linked to Israel.

They say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza where Israel’s war has killed over 51,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and led to genocide and war crimes accusations, that Israel denies.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023, , when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israel.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

READ: Yemen’s Houthi gov’t enforces boycott of US, Israeli goods over Gaza genocide