ANSD : Coalition airstrike in Yemen kills 12 civilians, including seven kids

TUE 23 - 4 - 2024

Date: Apr 3, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Coalition airstrike in Yemen kills 12 civilians, including seven kids

_Reuters
HUDAIDA, Yemen: An airstrike by the Arab-led coalition fighting in Yemen killed 12 civilians including seven children in the city of Hudaida Monday, medics and a witness said. Medics and a civilian who saw the wreckage said the airstrike destroyed a house in the Al-Hali district, where displaced civilians from other provinces were settled.

The 12 victims were all from the same family, they said.

A spokesman for the Arab-led coalition told Reuters: “We take this report very seriously and it will be fully investigated as all reports of this nature are using an internationally approved, independent process. While this is ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

Hudaida is home to the impoverished country’s biggest port from where most of the humanitarian aid reaches millions of civilians on the brink of famine. The operation of the port, controlled by the Houthis, was not affected by the airstrike.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened in a civil war in Yemen in 2015 against the Houthis to restore the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi.

The alliance, which includes other Sunni Muslim states, has conducted thousands of airstrikes targeting Houthi fighters and has often hit civilian areas, although it denies ever doing so intentionally.

The war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than 2 million and driven the country – already the poorest on the Arabian Peninsula – to the verge of famine.

Last week the Houthis launched a flurry of missiles that Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted over Riyadh. Debris from the missiles fell on a home, killing one person.

Rights watchdog Human Rights Watch said Monday that the Houthi attack had violated the laws of war by indiscriminately targeting populated areas.

“The Houthis should immediately stop their indiscriminate missile attacks on populated areas of Saudi Arabia,” Middle East Director Sarah Leah Whitson said.

“But just as unlawful coalition airstrikes don’t justify the Houthis’ indiscriminate attacks, the Saudis can’t use Houthi rockets to justify impeding lifesaving goods for Yemen’s civilian population.”

When the Houthis fired missiles at Riyadh last November, the coalition responded by shutting Yemen’s airports and ports. The United Nations said that blockade raised the danger of mass starvation and it was partially lifted.

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