SANAA — Three brothers waiting to get married were killed in a rocket attack alongside at least 22 other people in southwest Yemen on Thursday, residents and medics said.

Local people told Reuters jets from a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen were probably to blame, but the coalition’s spokesman said it had carried out no air strikes in that part of the country.

The brothers were waiting for their brides’ party to arrive when a missile hit their house in the town of Sanban in Dhamar region, residents said. At least 50 people were wounded, but the brides were unharmed, locals and medics added.

Officials and residents have accused the Saudi-led forces of killing civilians in two other attacks over the past two weeks, prompting international criticism, but the coalition has denied this and instead blamed rockets fired by the Houthis.

Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri said the attack in Dhamar was likely also the work of the Houthis and accused them of trying to divert attention from recent reverses by targeting civilians and blaming it on the Saudi-led forces.

The Houthi-run Saba news agency reported that a coalition air raid in Sanban had killed or wounded dozens of people at a wedding celebration and that the toll might exceed 30. Medics from the Dhamar governorate said at least 25 died.

The Arab coalition began its air strikes against the Houthis and their allies, forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, in late March after a push from their northern stronghold towards the southern port of Aden.

The coalition, which is trying to restore Yemen’s ousted President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, stepped up air strikes on Yemen’s capital Sanaa and other Houthi-held areas after a Houthi missile killed more than 60 Gulf Arab troops stationed in Marib province on Sept. 4.