Five women killed in Yemen wedding attack

The explosion happened two days after 26 people were killed at Aden airport

Passers-by inspect a van damaged in an explosion at a nearby wedding hall the Yemeni Red Sea city of Hodeidah on January 2, 2021. AFP

Five women were killed when a projectile exploded at a New Year's Day wedding party in the Yemeni Red Sea city of Hodeidah.

The government and Houthi rebels blamed each other for the Friday night attack near Hodeidah's airport, a front line between their forces on the edge of the Houthi-held port.

The attack happened two days after 26 people were killed by explosions at the airport in the southern city of Aden as government ministers got off a plane.

In Hodeidah, "the explosion struck at the entrance to a complex of several wedding halls", a witness told AFP, as a party was being held for a newly-married rebel supporter.

Local officials said five women were killed, and children were among seven others wounded, when what appeared to be an artillery shell struck.

Gen Sadek Douid, the government representative in a UN-sponsored joint commission overseeing a truce, condemned the attack as "an odious crime committed by the Houthis against civilians".

Hodeidah's Houthi-appointed governor, Mohammed Ayache, said on Al Masirah television, which is run by the Shiite Muslim rebels, that "the forces of aggression never hesitate to blame others for their crimes".

Saudi Arabia-backed government forces launched an offensive in June 2018 to retake Hodeidah, the main entry point for humanitarian aid to the Arab world's poorest country.

A ceasefire has been partially observed since December of that year. Yemen's new power-sharing government vowed on Thursday to restore stability, a day after the deadly explosions on the airport tarmac in Aden.

All Cabinet members were reported to be unharmed, in what some ministers charged was an attack by the Iran-backed Houthis, who have controlled the capital Sanaa since 2014 September and are based in northern Yemen.

Foreign Minister Ahmed bin Mubarak told AFP that the new government was up to tackling the challenges facing Yemen.

"The government is determined to fulfil its duty and work to restore stability," he said. "This terrorist attack will not deter it."

The new government includes supporters of the secessionist Southern Transitional Council, as well as other parties.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed and millions displaced in Yemen's grinding six-year war, which has triggered what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian disaster.