ADEN, Yemen, July 17 (Xinhua) -- At least four civilians were killed and six others injured after mortar shell rounds landed at a residential area in Yemen's southwestern province of Taiz on Tuesday, a security official told Xinhua.
The local security official, who asked to remain anonymous, said that mortar shells fired by Houthi fighters landed on a residential area in downtown Taiz province, killing four civilians including two children and injuring six others at the scene.
"The Houthi fighters positioned in Taiz outskirts fired a number of mortar shells indiscriminately against government-controlled areas in Taiz and one of the shells targeted a residential building," the source said.
A resident, Yasser Ali, 24, told Xinhua by phone saying that the explosions caused by the shells were huge and sounded like fighter jet airstrikes.
"Heavy explosions hit Sinah neighborhood and we thought they were airstrikes but we went to the site and discovered that Houthi mortar shells hit the area," Yasser said.
The impoverished Arab country has been locked into a civil war since the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels overran much of the country militarily and seized all northern provinces, including capital Sanaa, in 2014.
Saudi Arabia leads an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Iran-backed Houthi rebels forced him into exile.
The United Nations has listed Yemen as the world's number one humanitarian crisis, with seven million Yemenis on the brink of famine and cholera causing more than 2,000 deaths.
