Saudi-led coalition denies striking funeral in Yemen's capital

People stand at the site of an airstrike which witnesses said was by Saudi-led coalition aircraft on mourners at a hall where a wake for the father of Jalal al-Roweishan, the interior minister in the Houthi-dominated Yemeni government, was being held, in Sanaa, Yemen October 8, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

RIYADH - The Saudi-led coalition denied on Saturday carrying any air strike in Yemen's capital Sanaa, sources from the coalition confirmed to local news Al Arabiya.

Earlier on Saturday, Yemen's acting health minister Ghazi Ismail said the Saudi-led coalition air strikes on a funeral hall in Sanaa have killed 82 and injured 534.

The mourning ceremony was held for the father of the acting interior minister and rebel Houthi loyalist Jalal al-Ruwaishan.

The Yemeni official strongly condemned what he said "barbaric air attacks against civilians and civilian targets."

However, the sources from the coalition said it has in the past avoided such gatherings and they have never been a subject of targets.

The Saudi-led coalition, which supports the internationally recognized Yemeni government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi against Shiite Houthi rebels, have been air striking Yemen from March 2015.

Houthi rebels, supported by forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, seized Sanaa and some other cities in September 2014, forcing Hadi and his government into exile.

The airstrikes and fighting on the ground have killed over 10,000 Yemenis, many of them women and children, and injured around 35,000 others, according to a UN report.