4th June 2015, Saudi led coalition airstrike hit family car in Sada city Yemen, trying to flee to safety, killing 6, baby surived

Around 4th June 2015 a Saudi coalition airstrike hit a car killing all but one of a family trying to flee to safety. The dead included a man and wife, their mother and their three children. The sole survivor of the family was a baby boy age just 13 days old. This is Amnesty International's report of the incident:

ATTACK ON VEHICLE, SA’DA CITY, SA’DA, EARLY JUNE

Some victims were killed as they were trying to flee to safety. Abdullah al-Lamood Abdullah told Amnesty International that six members of his family were killed when the car they were travelling in was struck by coalition forces around 4 June in the middle of the day.

The car was by the petrol station near the political security building on the Gharaz Road, next to the specialized hospital, when a first airstrike hit the station. A second airstrike subsequently hit the car, inside which were Hassan Hussein al-Lamood, 31, his mother Aziza, 50, his wife and their four young children. All were killed except Hussein’s youngest child, a 13-day-old boy.

Abdullah told researchers that later that evening he heard on television that coalition forces announced the killing of a Huthi leader. He believed from the description that they were referring to his brother Hassan. However, he maintained that his brother Hassan was neither a leader nor a member of the Huthis.

“He was just an ordinary family man who worked in a money change office. They were in the Muwasalat area and when the petrol station there was bombed they escaped and headed to Gharaz, to my sister. They were on the way there when their car was bombed”.

It is not clear if the target of the strike was the vehicle in which the al-Lamood family was travelling, the petrol station, the political security building or another target nearby. The vehicle and the civilians in it should not have been targeted. The petrol station also is a civilian object and should not have been directly attacked as such. As part of their obligation to take necessary precautions, those planning an attack on a legitimate target in the immediate vicinity should have been aware of and taken into consideration the danger of striking a petrol station, which was likely to cause a secondary explosion and fire thereby putting civilians in the area at risk. They would have had an obligation to consider other less risky targets.

‘BOMBS FALL FROM THE SKY DAY AND NIGHT’
CIVILIANS UNDER FIRE IN NORTHERN YEMEN
Amnesty International October 2015 Index: MDE 31/2548/2015