Yemeni rights network says 8 civilians killed in Taiz in 48 hours

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TAIZ, Yemen — A Yemeni rights group said eight civilians were killed and 26 wounded in Taiz governorate over 48 hours, in attacks it attributed to Houthi forces.

The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms said it documented 109 crimes and violations across the governorate in that period. Saba, the state news agency of the internationally recognised government, carried the report on October 21.

The statement was issued from Aden, the seat of the internationally recognised government.

Three women and three children were among the dead, the network said.

Seven women and four children were among the wounded.

The group said more than 147 projectiles were fired, most of them into residential neighbourhoods.

Two ballistic missiles struck the Sinah neighbourhood in the centre of Taiz city, according to the report.

An ambulance was hit by an artillery shell on Mount Saber, which rises south of the city. The driver was killed and a doctor travelling with him was wounded, the network said. The vehicle was destroyed.

The report listed 24 people taken to unknown locations and about 23 homes raided.

Seventeen homes were damaged, from partial to total destruction. Eleven private vehicles were also damaged, the group said.

The network sorted the incidents into killings and injuries from shelling and sniper fire, abductions and forced disappearances, raids on homes, ballistic missile attacks on residential areas, attacks on ambulances and medical teams, the storming of Quran memorisation centres and places of worship, the blocking of public roads, and the continuing siege of the city.

The group described those responsible as Iranian-backed Houthi militias. That wording is the network’s own.

The report was issued by an organisation aligned with the government side. The Houthi movement did not respond to it.

Yemen Herald could not independently verify the figures. The account rests on the network’s statement as carried by Saba, which is run by one of the parties to the war. No second origin for the tally has been published.

Other monitoring groups published their own counts for Taiz this month. They cover different periods and reach different totals.

The Rasd Organization for Rights and Freedoms said 51 civilians were killed or wounded in the governorate between October 14 and October 20. It put the dead at nine and the wounded at 42. Saba carried that statement on October 22.

A separate tally reported by Times Kuwait put the toll at 11 civilians killed and 53 wounded in Taiz over one week.

Yemen’s interior ministry said two people were killed and 16 wounded in shelling across Taiz on October 10, in figures reported by the Anadolu news agency.

The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms separately reported 21 violations and 213 projectiles targeting Taiz in a 24-hour period.

The Yemeni government said six civilians were killed and 18 wounded in shelling in Taiz on October 13, in figures reported by the Anadolu news agency.

Al Jazeera reported attacks in the governorate the same day, as government forces advanced in Marib.

Al Jazeera has also reported five civilians killed in shelling in Taiz in a separate incident this month.

Middle East Eye reported that at least five people were killed in attacks in Taiz this month, and that a hospital was struck on a Tuesday.

A rights group said two children were killed and three civilians wounded in attacks in Taiz on October 24, in a report carried by Middle East Monitor.

IranWire reported a cumulative count from a rights group of 130 civilians killed and 181 injured in Houthi attacks in Taiz.

Residents of Taiz buried 18 people on October 23, most of them civilians, whom local authorities said were killed by shelling. Governor Nabil Shamsan attended the funeral prayers at al-Saeed Mosque, according to Yemen Monitor.

The groups do not publish their methods. Their counts cover overlapping periods and cannot be matched against one another.

Fighting across Yemen escalated on September 3. The Houthi-run health ministry in Sanaa says 536 civilians have been killed or injured in Saudi-led coalition air strikes since that date. The coalition has not commented on that figure, and no independent monitoring group has published a matching count.

Taiz is Yemen’s third-largest city. Front lines have divided it since 2015, with government-held districts in the centre and Houthi forces on the surrounding heights. Access routes into the city have been restricted for most of that period.

Houthi forces have held positions on the high ground around the city since 2015, and the main roads into Taiz have been closed for much of that time.

The opening of those roads was among the issues raised in United Nations-brokered truce talks.

The United Nations humanitarian response plan for Yemen, published in March 2026, says more than 22 million people need assistance and that 18.3 million are acutely food insecure. It seeks 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million people.

The network has issued similar tallies through October. Earlier reports from the group counted 219 violations in Taiz over 48 hours, and 95 violations alongside 218 projectiles in a 24-hour period. Saba carried both.

The group has also reported 170 violations across nine governorates in a 48-hour period, and 1,891 violations in Taiz over 52 days.