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SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Warplanes bombed two boats carrying 20 Indian crew members as the vessels traveled between Somalia and Yemen, India's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday, a day after the Yemeni coast guard said a Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemeni Shiite rebels bombed boats off the war-torn country's coast.
Thirteen crew members are alive and seven are missing, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said in a statement. He said authorities are trying to gather more information. He didn't elaborate on who may have carried out the attack.
Yemeni coast guard officials said Tuesday that a Saudi-led coalition attacked more than five boats off the Yemeni coast, the same day the Indian boats were bombed. Officials with the rebels, known as Houthis, said the boats were carrying fishermen and weren't connected to them. It wasn't immediately clear if the two incidents were the same.
Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition of mainly Gulf nations fighting the Houthis, who seized the capital, Sanaa, last September.
Yemen's rebel-controlled Ministry of Health said six civilians were killed and 10 wounded as a result of Saudi-led airstrikes in the capital Sanaa on Wednesday, as the sound of airstrikes continued into the evening.
In the city of Taiz, five civilians were killed and at least 20 wounded amid fighting between rebels and their opponents, independent security and medical officials said.
The impoverished country is torn between the Houthis, allied with army units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and forces loyal to exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia in March, hours before the Saudi-led coalition began its airstrikes against the Houthis.
The conflict has killed over 2,100 civilians, according to the United Nations.
All Yemeni officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief reporters.
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Associated Press writer Nirmala George in New Delhi contributed to this report.
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