The blast occurred on Friday night in Taiz city which has been a battleground in Yemen’s civil war.

At least five children in southwestern Yemen have died after an explosive device detonated in a residential area where they were playing football, rights groups and witnesses said.

The circumstances surrounding the incident late on Friday in the al-Hashmah subdistrict of Taiz province remain unclear.

However, on Saturday, the Yemen Center for Human Rights and another rights group called Eye of Humanity, along with Houthi-controlled Al Masirah TV, said an artillery shell was fired by militias backed by the Islah party, which is allied to the internationally recognised government in south Yemen.

Two local residents who were witnesses, Ahmed al-Sharee and Khaled al-Areki, told The Associated Press news agency that the children were playing football when the explosion happened.

At least three people with minor to moderate injuries were also taken to the hospital, according to the witnesses. Meanwhile, Mahmoud al-Mansi, another witness, said the explosive was directed from an area where forces allied with the Islah party were present.

A spokesperson for the United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, told The Associated Press that they are aware of reports about the incident but can’t verify the facts at the moment.

The Yemen Center for Human Rights condemned the incident in a report that included graphic photos of the children’s torn bodies. Citing healthcare sources at al-Rafai Hospital, where the victims arrived unresponsive, the group said they died from shrapnel injuries.

Two of the children were 12 years old, while two others were 14 years old, according to the group. The age of the fifth child is unknown.

Taiz city, the capital of the province of Taiz, has been a battleground, pitting the Houthis against other armed groups backed by the Islah party against each other and other factions in Yemen’s civil war.

The city was under Houthi blockade since 2016, restricting the freedom of movement and flow of essential goods to residents, but Houthis recently opened key roads.

Yemen’s ruinous civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen, forcing the internationally recognised government into exile.

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia and including the United Arab Emirates intervened in 2015 to try to restore the government to power.

Years of UN-brokered peace talks have also failed to break the deadlock. But the conflict has been largely frozen since the sides reached a ceasefire in 2022.

The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council controls much of the south, which has been fractured by the civil war. The council advocates for the south’s secession and has its own forces, allied to the internationally recognised government, fighting the Houthis.