Air raid kills eight women, child at Yemen funeral

At least 10 other women were wounded in the overnight raid on the district of Arhab, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Sanaa.

The United Nations gave the toll as at least six women and one girl killed, with Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN's special envoy to Yemen, branding such attacks on civilians as "unjustifiable".

The Houthi rebels, who seized large parts of the country including the capital in 2014, accused the Saudi-backed Arab coalition supporting the Yemeni government of carrying out the strike.

A coalition statement sent to AFP said the group was "investigating the reports" that civilians were killed in the raid near Sanaa.

Mohammed Al Nakii, whose home medics said was hit, told an AFP correspondent at the site that at the time of the bombing he had been receiving condolences for his brother who died on Sunday.

He said his own wife was among those killed.

Nakii said he saw four women die immediately at the scene, describing the attack as "barbaric".

It was not immediately clear if the house was deliberately targeted.

An AFP photographer said the stone building had been totally demolished except for three remaining arches.

Bloodstains, clothing and shoes were seen among the rubble.

The home had been built on a plot of land with no other buildings visible in the immediate vicinity.

Yemen's war pits the internationally recognised government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi against Houthi rebels allied with forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The Saudi-led Arab coalition that intervened in 2015 on the side of Hadi says it does not target civilians, but it has faced repeated allegations of deliberately striking weddings, funerals, schools and hospitals.

In October the coalition admitted to killing 140 people in an airstrike on a funeral in Sanaa, blaming the deaths on "incorrect information". It had initially denied involvement.

"Women and children in particular have been subjected to unspeakable suffering in this brutal conflict," Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement condemning the latest strike. "This should stop immediately."