SANAA, Yemen -- The two airstrikes came in rapid succession just after 9 p.m. Monday, leveling a two-story family home in the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital soon after the Houthis claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on the United Arab Emirates.
Inside the house in the upper-class residential neighborhood were more than a dozen relatives and employees of Brig. Gen. Abdullah Qassem al-Junaid, who once led the air force academy in Sanaa. Saudi state media outlets said Junaid was a top Houthi official, but neighbors said he had retired from the academy.
Junaid, his wife, Enas, his son Majed and at least five other members of his household, including guards and a maid, were killed, a family member said. Several nearby homes were also damaged, and four neighbors, including a doctor, were among those killed.
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The strike was described by Saudi media as a blow against the Houthi command structure after the movement's strike on the UAE earlier Monday. But it was also another day of lives lost in the grinding proxy war tearing the country apart and creating one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
The strikes, launched by the Saudi-led coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 against the Iranian-backed Houthis, came hours after the attack on Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE.
The UAE is a partner of the coalition that has been battling the Houthis since shortly after the group took over the Yemeni capital. The suspected drone strike blew up three petroleum tanker trucks near Abu Dhabi's port and caused a "minor fire" at the international airport, killing two Indian nationals and a Pakistani.
The retaliatory strikes on Sanaa were launched after the UAE Foreign Ministry said the attack on Abu Dhabi would "not go unpunished," in a rare acknowledgment of a Houthi attack on Emirati territory.
Even as the dust settled from the blasts in Sanaa, neighbors were scrambling over the rubble to find survivors. Naseer Abdulhakim al-Hebshi, 27, a childhood friend of Junaid's son, rushed one of the family's nephews to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He returned to the house and began digging through the rubble, where he found Junaid.
"He was dead and his body was torn in the abdomen," he said. "It was such a horrific scene."
Later than night, an exhausted Hebshi returned to the hospital, where he found the body of his childhood friend, Majed, and passed out from the shock.
Murad Abdo Ali, 26, a pharmacist who lives nearby, joined the rescue efforts, helping to retrieve dismembered limbs from under the rubble.
"There was fire and smoke everywhere," he said. "We collected what body parts we could find and put them in black plastic bags."
Although the coalition regularly hits targets in Sanaa, Monday's strikes were among the deadliest in recent years. Mutahar Almarwani, director general of the health office in Sanaa, said 14 people were killed and 11 injured. Two are in intensive care.
ABU DHABI DAMAGE
Meanwhile, satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday appear to show the aftermath of the attack on an oil facility in Abu Dhabi claimed by the Houthi rebels.
The images by Planet Labs PBC show smoke rising over an Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. depot in the Mussafah neighborhood. Another image appears to show scorch marks and white fire-suppressing foam.
Abu Dhabi National Oil is the state-owned energy firm that provides much of the wealth of the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula and also home to Dubai.
The company did not respond to questions. "We are working closely with the relevant authorities to determine the exact cause and a detailed investigation has commenced," it has said.
Three tankers exploded, police said. In addition to the three deaths, six people were wounded at the facility, which is near Al-Dhafra Air Base, a massive Emirati installation that is also home to American and French forces.
Another fire struck Abu Dhabi International Airport, though damage could not be seen. Journalists have not been able to view the sites attacked and state-run media have not published photographs.
Police described the assault as a suspected drone attack, while the Houthis claimed they used cruise and ballistic missiles.
Information for this article was contributed by Ali al-Mujahed and Siobhan O'Grady of The Washington Post; and by Jon Gambrell, Isabel DeBre, Samy Magdy, Edith M. Lederer and Kim Tong-hyung of The Associated Press.