Sanaa, Sep 17 (DPA) Scores of civilians, mostly women and children displaced by hostilities in northwestern Yemen, were killed in an airstrike Wednesday in Amran province, tribal sources said.

The sources said a fighter jet shelled a gathering of people in a flat, rocky expanse in al-Adi area of the Harf Sufian district, where the army is battling Shia rebels.

In a second raid, a war plane bombed survivors as they ran for safety in nearby farmland, the sources said.

A tribal chieftain from the neighbouring Khamir district said at least 87 people were killed and more than 40 others wounded.

'It looks that they were mistaken for gatherings of rebels,' the tribal chief told DPA by phone from Khamir.

Military officials contacted by dpa denied the reported casualties among civilians, saying there was no gathering of displaced people in al-Adi.

The defence ministry, however, blamed the rebels for 'preventing citizens from leaving to the safe areas.'

'The terrorists are using innocent citizens as human shields,' the ministry said in an e-mailed statement that did not directly mention the airstrike.