Monday, 8 June 2015

8th June 2015, coalition airstrike hits a farm on Beni Ma'ath Yemen, killing 2 pregant women and 3 children

On 8th June 2015, a Saudi led coalition struck a farm sending 22 family members flying dozens of meters away, killing 2 pregnant women and 3 children and injuring 2 children and an elderly man, all from the same family. This is Amnesty International's report of the incident:

BENI MA’ATH, SABR, SAHAR, SA’DA, 8 JUNE

On the morning of 8 June, a coalition forces airstrike on a farm in Beni Ma’ath, a rural area north-west of Sa’da city, killed three children and two pregnant women, as well as injuring two children and a 61-year-old man from the Halhal family.

The strikes created a 10-meter wide crater, where Amnesty International found remnants of a US-designed Mark (MK) 80 series general purpose bomb.Survivors told Amnesty International that three consecutive airstrikes hit the farm, sending some of the 22 family members flying dozens of meters away. They said that they did not find the body of one of the children killed in the strike until four days later. Amnesty International found no evidence of military activities around the house, where the family’s meagre possessions were strewn dozens of meters from the ruins of the house.

Ammar Mohammed Halhal, a 28-year-old farmer and father of four who survived the attack, but lost his pregnant wife and his daughter, told Amnesty International:

“I don’t know why they bombed us. We are just simple farmers, we grow qat and vegetables. We are poor and spend our time working to eke a living for our families. They killed us for no reason. My wife, Nabila Ali and my little girl Fatime, my brothers Saqar and Abdullatif, who are both two years old, and my stepmother Safia Ghaleb were all killed. My wife and my stepmother were both in the last month of their pregnancies. My father and my little brother and sister, both three years old, were injured. The bombs were so powerful that we were blown far from the house. It took four days to find the body of little Abdullatif; he had been blown more than 50 meters away”.


Ammar Mohammed Halhal’s father, Mohammed, who sustained multiple injuries to his back, neck and arms, said:


“The explosion sent me flying all the way to that tree, some 30 meters from the house”.


NOWHERE SAFE FOR CIVILIANS’ 15AIRSTRIKES AND GROUND ATTACKS IN YEMEN
Index: MDE 31/2291/2015 Amnesty International August 2015

The following daily report from the Legal Center for Rights and Development also lists this incident 'The warplanes bombed Saber vale in Sehar district and killed 6 civilians from one family' as well as many others that occured on the same day.


Ref: 15060801



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