The
latest attack comes just hours after Saudi Arabia admitted that its
forces have committed what it called “certain mistakes” in Yemen,
after increasing pressure from international bodies and human-rights
groups that accuse the kingdom of carrying out war crimes in the
country.
by
Ahmed Abdulkareem
Saudi
Arabia, backed by the United States, carried out an airstrike
targeting a displaced family in the Mustaba district in the province
of Hajjah, southwestern Yemen early Tuesday morning. A man, his wife,
and their nine-year old only-daughter were killed in the strike,
along with 10 others.
A
30-year-old witness told MintPress News: “Two airstrikes
targeted Hussein al-Hajouri`s house at 2 a.m., killing Hussein and
his wife and daughter. We found some parts of their bodies 100 meters
from the house that was bombed; some of it is still under the
rubble.”
Rescue
efforts were complicated by fear of additional strikes, as Saudi
warplanes continued to circle the area after the initial strikes.
Saudi Arabia has been know to use double-tap strikes in Yemen,
carrying out an initial airstrike and then circling back to target
rescuers.
The
latest attack comes just hours after Saudi Arabia admitted that its
forces have committed what it called “certain mistakes” in Yemen,
after increasing pressure from international bodies and human-rights
groups that accuse the kingdom of carrying out war crimes in the
country.
Saudi
Defense Ministry spokesman Osaiker Alotaibi told a panel of 18
independent experts on Monday that a coalition investigation had
uncovered “the existence of certain unintentional mistakes in a
number of these operations,” adding that “the task force
recommended that perpetrators should be held to account and victims
should enjoy redress.”
In her
response to the Saudi Defense Ministry, the panel’s chairwoman,
Renate Winter, wondered why schools and hospitals had been targeted
repeatedly: “You say it’s an accident. How many such accidents
can you bear and how many such accidents can people in Yemen bear?”
Last
month, investigators launched an international inquiry into war
crimes in Yemen and found evidence of such crimes committed in the
country. Their August 28 report said Saudi airstrikes had caused most
of the documented civilian casualties.
Since
the war began in 2015, the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition has
repeatedly targeted displaced civilians. In the most recent such
attack before today, airstrikes targeted displaced families near the
port city of Hodeida on August 24, killing or wounding 31 people, 24
of whom were children. Many of the victims of the strike belonged to
a single family.
More
recently, at least two Yemeni civilians were killed and three others
wounded when Saudi warplanes struck a vehicle in the city of Abs in
Hajjah, on Tuesday.
This
week, one person was killed and a number of others sustained injuries
after Saudi fighter jets conducted an airstrike on Munirah city in
Hodeida, western Yemen. Saudi jets also conducted an airstrike on the
residential area of Ghaferah in the Dhahir district in the northern
province of Saada, killing a child and wounding several others.
Over
600,000 civilians have been killed or injured in Yemen since the
Saudi-led coalition began its attacks in 2015, according to Yemen’s
Ministry of Human Rights based in Sana’a. The U.S.-backed
coalition’s blockade on Yemen has also triggered an epidemic of
disease and famine across the country.
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