Saudi warplanes have caused dozens of casualties by mistakenly targeting the Riyadh-allied militants who fight on the side of fugitive former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi in west-central Yemen.

The offensive, which took place in Ma’rib Province on Tuesday, was the second time in the space of a week that Saudi aircraft targeted the allied forces by mistake, Yemen’s official Saba Net news agency reported.

The previous attacks came on Thursday, when Saudi warplanes carried out airstrikes on Ma’rib’s provincial capital city of the same name, killing an unknown number of militants loyal to Hadi.

Saudi aircraft also killed three civilians and injured five others in attacks against Ta’izz Province in southwestern Yemen.

Yemen has been witnessing ceaseless attacks by Saudi Arabia since March 26. The military strikes are supposedly meant to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and bring Hadi back to power.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="555"] A man walks past a destroyed truck following an airstrike by Saudi Arabia in the Yemeni capital Sana’a, August 31, 2015. (Photo by AFP)[/caption]

The Saudi aggression has claimed the lives of more than 7,100 people and injured a total of nearly 14,000 others. The strikes have also taken a heavy toll on the impoverished country’s facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories there.

The Saudi strikes have prompted reprisal attacks on the part of the Yemeni army and Popular Committees, the latest of which saw the forces take two military bases in southwestern Saudi Arabia under rocket attacks, killing and injuring a number of Saudi troops.

‘Alarming food insecurity’

Meanwhile, Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said on Monday, citing a report by the world body’s World Food Program, that Yemen’s fragile food security was deteriorating fast, with 10 out of the country’s 22 provinces being classified as facing food insecurity at the ‘emergency’ level – one step below famine.

Yemen has one of the highest rates of child malnutrition in the world, the official said, adding that an estimated one in five people was “severely food insecure” and in urgent need of food assistance there.

By Press TV