Residents of the southern restive province of Daleh, located over 300 kilometres south of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, confirmed on Friday that an army tank targeted civilians earlier in the day when it directly shot a funeral tent.
Local medics told reporters that so far 10 dead bodies had been retrieved from the scene, among which were several children. Over a dozen people have said to have suffered injuries, ranging from treatable to grave.
"We received 10 bodies, among them children, and 15 wounded people," AFP quoted a source at al-Nasr hospital as saying.
Military officials have refused so far refused to acknowledge the incident, let alone comment on it.
According to Haraki militants in Daleh, (Southern Secessionist Movement) the army knowingly targeted a funeral tent which the group had erected to allow mourners to come and pay their last respects to a southern militant which was killed earlier this week in clashes with the authorities.
One witness told AFP by telephone that troops fired more shells "when we tried to hospitalise the casualties," adding that "there are wounded victims still inside the tent.”
Tensions flared in the past week across Yemen’ southern provinces as secessionist militants have tried to take over key institutions and thus renege Sana’a central government’s institutional authority.
Angered militants in Daleh have called for reprisals against the military as they warned they would not tolerate the unwarranted targeting of unarmed civilians.