Air raid kills freelance journalist in Yemen

Air raid kills freelance journalist in Yemen
Freelance Yemeni journalist Almigdad Mojalli was killed Sunday morning in an air raid by the Saudi-led coalition on rebel-held Sanaa while he was on assignment.
2 min read
18 January, 2016
The Saudi-led coalition launched air raids against rebel positions across Sanaa on Sunday [Getty]
A freelance Yemeni journalist was killed on Sunday in an air raid by the Saudi-led coalition on rebel-held Sanaa, a witness and his employer said.

Almigdad Mojalli was hit by shrapnel as a missile slammed into the capital's southern Jaref suburb while he was covering air strikes, said his colleague, photojournalist Bahir Hameed.

"Planes were hovering above when we were struck," Hameed said.

According to his Twitter account, Mojalli reported for Voice Of America and the IRIN humanitarian news agency.

IRIN said it was "shocked by this terrible loss".

"With great sadness, we received news from the family of Almigdad Mojalli, our regular contributor in Yemen, that he was killed today," said a post on its official Twitter account.

"Almigdad was an excellent journalist, committed to neutrally [and] objectively telling the suffering of the Yemeni people in a brutal civil war.

At least five journalists were killed in Yemen last year, according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders [RSF].

On Sunday, the Saudi-led coalition launched air raids against rebel positions across Sanaa, including the area close to the state-run television building and military bases in the al-Nahdein mountains, The New Arab's Arabic service reported.

Local sources said that over the past three days hundreds of air raids have been carried out, primarily in the besieged city of Taiz.

Also on Sunday, a suicide car bomb attack targeted the house of the police chief the southern city of Aden, killing seven civilians and security forces.

More than 5,800 people have been killed in Yemen since the coalition launched its air campaign in support of the government last March, about half of them civilians, according to the UN.