15 killed in one of heaviest days of bombing yet over Sanaa

Air raids by Saudi-led coalition warplanes killed 15 people in Yemen's capital in one of the heaviest nights of bombardment in months, aid workers and witnesses said on Saturday.

One rescue worker told AFP that at least 10 civilians were among the dead.

"Ten members of the same family were killed in the al-Falihi neighbourhood, in Sanaa's old town," he said.

Residents said four houses were destroyed by a bomb and that 15 other buildings were damaged in the strikes. 

Witnesses said five Houthi militias were killed in a raid on their position in the capital, which the Shia fighters seized unopposed last year.

A Saudi-led coalition has conducted air strikes on rebel positions across Yemen since March and has provided troops, training and heavy weapons to forces seeking to reinstate the government of exiled President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.

Residents of Sanaa's al-Hassaba neighbourhood said coalition jets conducted several strikes overnight, targeting an interior ministry building and a police station. 

A residence of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose forces have allied with the Houthis, was also bombed, as well as an office of his political party, according to residents.  

In Sanaa's central Zubeiri Street, an army communications office was hit for the first time by the coalition.

The building has been used by the pro-Houthi Saba news agency, as well as other media outlets, according to a Houthi spokesman.

Oman's foreign affairs ministry confirmed that the residence of its ambassador in Sanaa was also hit by a strike on Friday and denounced the act.

"Oman received with deep regret yesterday's news targeting the ambassador's home in Sanaa, which is a clear violation of international charters and norms that emphasise the inviolability of diplomatic premises," the statement said.

The Houthis still control the capital but have lost ground in the south since July, when the Saudi-led coalition sent in armour, troops and Yemeni fighters trained in Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh formed the largely Arab alliance in response to fears the Houthis would take over all of Yemen and move it into the orbit of Iran, Sunni Saudi Arabia's Shia regional rival.

An analyst has estimated the coalition has more than 5,000 troops in Yemen, supporting local forces. Analysts have been speculating for weeks that after gains elsewhere the coalition and its supporters on the ground are planning to launch an offensive to retake the capital. 

In Marib province, east of Sanaa, where pro-Hadi forces have launched a ground offensive, several Houthi positions were also bombed overnight, military sources said.

The Marib offensive began after an early-September missile strike on a coalition base in the province killed 67 coalition soldiers, including 52 from the United Arab Emirates.

A Yemeni military source told AFP that General Fahd bin Turki, commander of Saudi-backed ground forces in Yemen, inspected troops deployed in Marib on Friday evening.

The United Nations says nearly 4,900 people have been killed since late March in Yemen, where the UN aid chief has called the scale of human suffering "almost incomprehensible."