24 July 2015, airstrikes kill 65 civilians in port city of Mokha, Taiz province, Yemen

Beginning the night of July 24 lasting until dawn of July 25 2015, Saudi led coalition forces launched massive air raids on two residential compounds of a steam power plant, in the Yemeni port city of Mokha, Taiz governate. The compounds housed the plant workers and their families. Living in this residential city were 200 engineers and workers, and 600 citizens, as well as a  number of displaced families.

At least 65 civilians were killed and many more were wounded, including women, 10 children and the elderly.

It is reported that after the arrival of a number of ambulances bombing returned again to target the paramedics, raising the number of victims, and then  further raids were launched along the shoreline to target those people who were trying to flee.


WARNING, the videos below are EXTREMELY GRAPHIC and DISTRESSING. They are put here as evidence to support the call for an independent enquiry into war crimes and to call on the West to stop supplying arms to Saudi Arabia.

HRW reported: 

Saudi-led coalition airstrikes that killed at least 65 civilians, including 10 children, and wounded dozens in the Yemeni port city of Mokha on July 24, 2015, are an apparent war crime. Starting between 9:30 and 10 p.m., coalition airplanes repeatedly struck two residential compounds of the Mokha Steam Power Plant, which housed plant workers and their family members.

The failure of Saudi Arabia and other coalition members to investigate apparently unlawful airstrikes in Yemen demonstrates the need for the United Nations Human Rights Council to create a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of laws-of-war violations by the coalition, the Houthis, and other parties to the conflict, Human Rights Watch said.

“The Saudi-led coalition repeatedly bombed company housing with fatal results for several dozen civilians,” said Ole Solvang, senior emergencies researcher. “With no evident military target, this attack appears to be a war crime.”

Human Rights Watch visited the area of the attack a day-and-a-half later. Craters and building damage showed that six bombs had struck the plant’s main residential compound, which housed at least 200 families, according to the plant’s managers. One bomb had struck a separate compound for short-term workers about a kilometer north of the main compound, destroying the water tank for the compounds, and two bombs had struck the beach and an intersection nearby.

Bombs hit two apartment buildings directly, collapsing part of their roofs. Other bombs exploded between the buildings, including in the main courtyard, stripping the exterior walls off dozens of apartments, leaving only the load-bearing pillars standing.

Workers and residents at the compounds told Human Rights Watch that one or more aircraft dropped nine bombs in separate sorties in intervals of a few minutes. All of the bombs appeared intended for the compounds and not another objective.

Human Rights Watch saw no signs that either of the two residential compounds for the power plants were being used for military purposes. Over a dozen workers and residents said that there had been no Houthi or other military forces at the compounds. The power plant and the compound were built in 1986.

Early in the morning of July 25, a news ticker on Al-Arabiya TV, a Saudi-owned media outlet, reported that coalition forces had attacked a military air defense base in Mokha. Human Rights Watch identified a military facility about 800 meters southeast of the Mokha Steam Power Plant’s main compound, which plant workers said had been a military air defense base. The plant workers said that it had been empty for months, and Human Rights Watch saw no activity or personnel at the base from the outside, except for two guards.

Bagil Jafar Qasim, vice director general of the plant, provided Human Rights Watch with a list of 65 people killed in the attack, including 10 children. The list included two people still missing, whom Qasim believed were buried under the rubble and probably dead. Human Rights Watch visited three hospitals in Hodaida that had received 42 wounded from the attack. Several, including an 11-year-old girl, were in critical condition.

Wajida Ahmed Najid, 37, a resident in one of the compounds whose husband is a plant employee, said that when the first strike hit, she grabbed her children close and they huddled together hoping the danger would pass:

"After the third strike the entire building began to collapse on top of us. Then I knew we needed to leave because it was not safe to stay. I grabbed my girls and we started running in the direction of the beach, but as we were running pieces of metal were flying everywhere and one hit Malak, my 9-year-old daughter. Thank God she is going to be okay. While we were running I saw bodies, seven of them, just lying on the ground, in pieces."

A doctor at the hospital told Human Rights Watch that they had removed a metal fragment from Malak’s abdomen.

Khalil Abdullah Aidrus, 35, a nurse at the plant’s clinic, said that he rushed to al-Salam clinic in Mokha city when he heard news of the attack. There, he and other medics administered basic first aid, then sent the wounded on to hospitals in Hodaida. He said that within an hour of the airstrikes they had received at least 30 wounded and 8 bodies. At 1 a.m., he went to the main compound:

"As I walked through the gates I saw my friend, an engineer at the plant, Abdu Samid al-Subaie. He was lying on the ground, just outside his apartment. He had a deep gash to his waist and he was bleeding to death as his two children lay at his side screaming and crying. But it was hopeless. At the same time the airplanes were still buzzing above us. We could hear them for hours afterwards."

Loai Nabeel, 20, who works at a shop in the compound, said he rushed to his family’s apartment when the attack started. A second bomb hit the apartment before he got there, collapsing the roof. He found his mother and younger brother by the entrance and brought them to the beach before he went back to search for his sisters Hadeel, 12, and Taghreed, 17:

"It was dark. It took me 10 minutes to find Hadeel under the rubble. The bomb hit the roof of the room where she was sleeping and her head was seriously wounded. I found Taghreed in another room with minor injuries to her head. Hadeel is still in a coma."

https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/07/27/yemen-coalition-strikes-residence-apparent-war-crime

Power plants that produce electricity used by the military are legitimate military targets. However, the harm incurred to the civilian population by an attack on a power plant can be enormous, making its destruction unlawfully disproportionate, as the long-term harm to civilians will be far greater than the immediate military gain.

The Mokha power plant, built in 1986, was not struck in the attack. Human Rights Watch found no sign that either of the two residential compounds for the power plants had been used for military purposes. More than a dozen workers and residents said that there had been no Houthi or other military forces at the compounds.

Early in the morning of July 25, a news ticker on Al-Arabiya TV, a Saudi-owned media outlet, reported that coalition forces had attacked a military air defense base in Mokha. The ticker was swiftly taken down and the story can no longer be found anywhere on Al-Arabiya’s website. Human Rights Watch identified a military facility about 800 meters (875 yards) southeast of the Mokha Steam Power Plant’s main compound, which plant workers said had been a military air defense base. The plant workers said that it had been empty for months, and Human Rights Watch saw no activity or personnel at the base from the outside, except for two guards.


https://www.hrw.org/node/283702

Amnesty reported:

STEAM POWER PLANT RESIDENTIAL COMPOUND, MOKHA, 24 JULY

Coalition forces bombed a residential compound housing workers of the Steam Power Plant and their families in the south-western port city of Mokha on 24 July at approximately 10pm, killing at least 63 civilians and injuring 50 others.

Amnesty International visited the site three days after the airstrike and interviewed 21 residents and plant workers at the site and in five hospitals in Mokha and Hodeida (on the north-western coast). One resident, Amal Sabri, described the incident as “something out of judgement day. Corpses and heads scattered, engulfed by fire and ashes”. According to residents and plant workers, at least six consecutive strikes pounded the housing compound, several targeting the compound cafeteria and maintenance equipment store. Eyewitnesses said that prior to the multiple strikes on the main residential compound an airstrike had targeted a small residential compound 700m to the north of the steam power plant also used to house plant workers.

Amnesty International delegates at the site found no evidence that the residential compounds were being used for any military purposes. According to scores of residents interviewed by Amnesty International, no Huthi fighters were present in the compound, which also housed several families displaced by the conflicts in Ta’iz, Aden and surrounding areas. The nearest military objective, an air force base, is located approximately 800m south east of the residential compounds. It is unclear whether it was also targeted.

55-year-old Qaed Mohamed Abdelqader al-Sabri, a technician at the plant who lost most of his family in the airstrike, told Amnesty International that they were celebrating the birth of his 10-day-old granddaughter when their home was bombed:

“We were all at home celebrating the birth of my granddaughter Alaa’, with neighbours and family. I was about to enter the house when suddenly the door came off as the whole house shook. It was like an earthquake. The first bomb hit the maintenance equipment store, the second bomb hit the cafeteria. There was a moment of silence, which I took advantage of to rescue my family. That is when the third bomb landed. The electricity had gone off, I tried to go inside the house to look for a torch and for my family. I was screaming for my daughters, I could hear others screaming in search of their families. But all I saw was my wife and daughters drowning in their blood. Only my daughters Lina (16) and Samar (26) survived as they had run away to the coast when the strikes happened. Three of my daughters, my wife, my daughter’s husband and my granddaughter Alaa’ were killed.”

Another resident, 24-year-old Alaa Abdeljaber Thabet, recounted the ordeal to Amnesty International:

“The residence streets were bustling, men and children were standing in front of the cafeteria playing billiards. Suddenly I saw a light in the sky, and then an explosion in the residential camp [700m north of the main residential camp] that shook our whole compound. Fear and alarm permeated the whole city… suddenly after two minutes, the first bomb hit our residency targeting the maintenance equipment store. I could hear the plane circling above. I fell down due to the pressure of the explosion. After two minutes I got up to go help move the women and children to the coast where it was safer. After four minutes, the second bomb fell on the cafeteria, around 20 meters away from the first strike on the store. That second strike killed the most… I walked amongst pools of blood and severed limbs, there were over 20 bodies. There were four more explosions after that, people trying to escape. I have still not come to terms with what happened that day until now. I can still see the bodies and the injured and I can hear the screaming all the time.”

Among those displaced by the conflict who were sheltering at the plant housing complex was Redha Mohamed Qaed, a father of six. His relative Abdu Naji al-Bu’dani, an engineer at the plant and a local resident told Amnesty International:

“Redha has come here with his family from Aden, to escape the fighting there. He had planned to go back to Aden the next day (as the Huthis had just been forced out of Aden). When the explosion happened he was sitting next to a window at his sister’s house. He hugged his wife and children to protect them and his back was ripped by shrapnel and he passed away on the spot.”

'NOWHERE SAFE FOR CIVILIANS'AIRSTRIKES AND GROUND ATTACKS IN YEMENIndex: MDE 31/2291/2015 Amnesty International August 2015

WARNING: the media below is graphic and distressing. It is placed here as evidence as war crimes to call for an independent investigation and to call on the international community to respect the Arms Treaty by stopping the supply of weapons to Saudi Arabic as they are clearly targeting civilians.  

List of the dead as reported by HRW:

Location: Mokha Steam Power Plant
Date: 7/24/2015

Name	Gender	Age	Killed/Wounded
Abdullah Muhammad Moqbel Bazel	Male		Killed
Mazin Ahmed Hassan al-Mujib	Male		Killed
Moath Abdullah Ali Abdullah	Male		Killed
Ali Fazel al-Abti	Male		Killed
Aymen Abdul Karim Bashir	Male		Killed
Wasim Saif Ahmed Asad	Male		Killed
Amro Ahmed Ba Alawi	Male		Killed
Muhammad Muhammad Ali Aqlan	Male		Killed
Khaled Ahmed Muhammad Qasem al-Sabri	Male		Killed
Ahmed Khaled Muhammad Ahmed Ghamazi	Male		Killed
Muhammad Mabruk Ahmed (unclear)	Male		Killed
Ammar Abdul Wasea Andul Waham Ahmed	Male		Killed
Tawfiq Ahmed Said al-Athoori	Male		Killed
Amjad Abdul Karim Bashir	Male		Killed
Muhammad Abdu Hassan al-Sabi	Male		Killed
Ahmed Muhammad Abdu Hassan al-Sabi	Male		Killed
Osama Yusuf Abdul Razaq	Male		Killed
Othman Bajash Othman	Male		Killed
Ahmed Ali Saif al-Adoa	Male		Killed
Bashir al-Salawi	Male		Killed
Thabil Abd al-Rahman Omran Nabil Muhammad Said	Male		Killed
Abd al-Rahman Ghamdan Nabil Muhammad Said	Male		Killed
Aymen Muhammad Ahmed Noaman	Male		Killed
Osama Muhammad Abd al-Hassan al-Absi	Male		Killed
Eissa Muhammad Mahyub	Male		Killed
Abd al-Samad Abd al-Haq al-Sabai	Male		Killed
Hamza Abd al-Rahman Muhammad	Male		Killed
Nazar Muhammadd Abd al-Ghani al-Harmim	Male		Killed
Adib Abd al-Wahab al-Hakimi	Male		Killed
Eissa Muhammad Abd al-Rahim	Male		Killed
Muhammad Adnan Shalan	Male		Killed
Haytham Khaled Muhammad Said al-Sharji	Male		Killed
Shakib Muhammad Abd al-Wadud	Male		Killed
Yusuf Abd al-Razaq al-Hakimi	Male		Killed
unidentified family member	Male	Under 18	Killed
unidentified family member	Male		Killed
unidentified family member	Male		Killed
Sahira Shawqi Shaher al-Adabji	Female		Killed
Bint Ahmed al-Wasabi	Female		Killed
Amana Ahmad Mohsen	Female		Killed
Ala Absi Muhammad Mahyub	Female		Killed
Rasfa Muhammad Qayed	Female		Killed
Asma Muhammad Abd al-Hassan al-Absi	Female		Killed
Eman Qayed al-Sabri	Female		Killed
Doa Qayed al-Sabri	Female		Killed
Sahar Qayed Muhammad al-Sabri	Female		Killed
Nahla Muhammad Ahmed Noaman	Female		Killed
Noha Muhammad Ahmed Noaman	Female		Killed
Thoraya Adib Muhammad Taher	Female		Killed
Nedal Muhammad Abdu	Female	Under 18	Killed
Khaled Ahmed Qasem	Male	Under 18	Killed
Yasser Muhammad Saleh	Male	Under 18	Killed
Visiting child from Aden	n/a	Under 18	Killed
Sadeq Abdullah Saleh	Male		Killed
Wife of Sadeq Abdullah Saleh	Female		Killed
1st Child of Sadeq Abdullah Saleh	n/a	Under 18	Killed
2nd Child of Sadeq Abdullah Saleh	n/a	Under 18	Killed
3rd Child of Sadeq Abdullah Saleh	n/a	Under 18	Killed
4th Child of Sadeq Abdullah Saleh	n/a	Under 18	Killed
5th Child of Sadeq Abdullah Saleh	n/a	Under 18	Killed
Sameh Muhammad Ali Ahmad	Male		Wounded
Muhammad Najib Muhammad Abd al-Wadoud	Male		Wounded
Hadil Nabil Abdu Hassan	Female		Wounded
Malak Abdu Muhammad al-Azazi	Female		Wounded
Ali Abd al-Salam	Male		Wounded
Tamir Muhammad Hassan	Male		Wounded
Zakaria Najib Muhammad	Male		Wounded
Hussein Samir	Male		Wounded
Haifa Abd al-Samad Abd al-Khaliq	Female		Wounded
Gamila Ali Hizam	Female		Wounded
Gamil Qaid Thabit al-Subaihi	Male		Wounded
Muhammad Ali Tariq	Male		Wounded
Abd al-Wasia Abdullah al-Hakimi	Male		Wounded

*The details of five more casualties are on file with the power plant administration

This is Mwatana's report of the incident:

http://www.mwatana.org/en/132016446

Ref: 15072401

20th July 2015, school, gas station and playground in Al-Dhale governorate Yemen hit by Saudi led coalition airstrike

On 20th July 2015, the Saudi led coalition airstrikes struck a school, gas station, shops and a playground in Al-Dhale governorate killing up to 5 people including 2 children, and injuring 13 more.

This is what Médecins Sans Frontières reported:

'On 20 July, in Al-Dhale governorate airstrikes from early morning until mid-day targeted a school, a gas station and a playground. The Emergency Room in the MSF supported hospital received 14 civilians, among them a child dead on arrival to the hospital.'

Yemen: Crisis update – 6 August 2015
http://www.msf.org/article/yemen-crisis-update-%E2%80%93-6-august-2015

 

A brief translation of the above video news report is as follows:

On the 20th of July, from the early morning till mid-day, Saudi Airstrikes bombarded residential homes, commercial shops, a school and a gas station in several areas in Qataba province, Al-Dhale governorate. Five were killed, three from the same family, a father and two children. Residents said three missiles were fired on a residential house and asserted that Saudis are appearing to be targeting civilians possessions such as homes, cars and shops, since their area does not contain any army camps, soldiers or Houthis.

Ref: 15080601

19th July 2015, 16 civilians killed including 3 women 9 children in Yarim, Yemen, when Saudi led coalition airstrikes hit homes

On 19th July 2015, the Saudi led coalition airstrikes killed at least 16 civilians, including 3 women and 9 children, and injured at least 16 more, damaging and destroying at least 11 homes, in the town of Yarim in Yemen.

This is HRW's report of the incident:

At about 2 a.m. on July 19, airstrikes killed at least 16 civilians, including three women and nine children, and wounded at least 16 civilians, in Yareem town, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Sanaa.

Human Rights Watch examined the site on July 22. The strike had partially damaged, and in some cases completely destroyed, 11 one-story residential homes and a two-story building.

Human Rights Watch also established that the site is located about 200 meters (219 yards) from the entrance to the 55th Rocket Artillery Brigade. Residents told Human Rights Watch that since the beginning of the air campaign in March, and on that night, they heard anti-aircraft guns being fired from the base. One nearby resident said that the now-dismantled Republican Guard, the military wing under the command of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s son, Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, had controlled the base since 1994. The base had been the main depot of Scud ballistic missiles for the Yemeni military, the resident said, but those had been removed about four years ago, and now the main weapons at the base were artillery rockets. There had been as many as 2,000 troops at the base in the past, he said, but only 300 troops were there since current conflict started.

Local residents told Human Rights Watch that at about 1:30 a.m., three strikes hit the military base at 10-minute intervals. The fourth strike hit the residential area.

Sabah Saleh Ahmed al-Boghomy, 50, said she and her husband owned most of the houses in the neighborhood, and her relatives lived in several of them. She said she was asleep at the time of the strike and was awakened by her daughter screaming and shaking her, saying that planes were bombing the military base. Al-Boghomy tried to calm her by taking her outside:

"After we left the home, all of a sudden the windows of the house shattered and the roof collapsed. We heard a loud explosion but had no idea that it was in our own yard. At the time my three sons, their wives and children and my two [other] daughters were still inside the house…. I remember hearing my neighbor screaming, “Save my children, save me, we are under the rubble!” "

Her family survived the attack without injury, but she said she knew of at least 12 neighbors who were killed in the strike. The attack destroyed six of their family homes and three cars.

A local resident, Hana Saad al-Nazhi, told Human Rights Watch that when she heard the first explosion, she grabbed her children and hid in a small room in their home:

"We stayed in that room while all the strikes happened, so I assumed that my brothers were safe and had escaped, only to realize when I went outside that one strike had hit my brother’s house. It wiped his house to the ground, they blew it up and killed him and his daughters… What was the military target in my brother’s house?"

Another brother, Radwan Saad al-Nazhi, came to the site of the strike after hearing the blasts from his home, located a few streets away. He told Human Rights Watch that altogether eight members of two of his brothers’ families were killed, five of them children. His sister, Hana Saad al-Nazhi, and her children were the only ones who survived the airstrike, but with injuries:

"I am not employed, my brothers were, I am not. I make a living doing odd jobs in the streets.… I had to take my sister and her three kids out of the hospital because I could not pay their bill."

Muhammad al-Faqih, 45, said he was sitting in his living room when he heard the initial strikes on the military base. He grabbed his clothes and woke his five children and wife, telling them to get dressed and be ready to leave. His son Osama al-Faqih, 20, was walking down the steps out of the house just as the strike hit about 20 meters (7 feet) from the door of their home. Muhammad al-Faqih, standing behind him just inside the door, was blown back into the house:

"We scrambled to our feet and got out of the house, and I heard cries. I turned to my left and saw my neighbor, an older woman. She was lying on the ground, with a large rock crushing her legs. She was begging us to help her so we did. After we helped move it, we rushed off to get my son, who we realized was injured, to the hospital. As we got to the main road we saw another neighbor, Salma, wandering along, and wailing for help. She was badly burned and her head was open and gushing blood.… I don’t know what happened to her."

Osama had a metal shard lodged in his neck that the doctors planned to remove, Muhammad al-Faqih told Human Rights Watch. He said that they were lucky that other families had helped to pay their medical bill. His house was only slightly damaged by the strike.

Ali Muhammad al-Milah was in his house, which was destroyed in the strike, at the time of the blast:

"I didn’t see anything when the explosion happened, it was all black. My ears started ringing, they are still ringing now, days later. I came back the next morning and saw five bodies just lying on the ground, including the bodies of two young kids. Only yesterday when I was here they found the body of another kid, a young girl. They pulled her out of the rubble."

Another resident said he heard a fifth strike about 10 minutes later, again on the military base.

The military base was a legitimate military target. The attack that struck the residential neighborhood should be investigated by the coalition to determine if it was unlawfully targeted and whether all feasible precautions had been taken to minimize civilian loss of life and property.

https://www.hrw.org/node/283702

WARNING: the media below is graphic and distressing. It is placed here as evidence as war crimes to call for an independent investigation and to call on the international community to respect the Arms Treaty by stopping the supply of weapons to Saudi Arabic as they are clearly targeting civilians.  

A brief translation of the above news reports is as follows:

Saudi warplanes have bombed Harat Al Salol in the city of Yarim in Ibb province, killing 13—five women,five children and three men and injuring 23 others. The raid was carried out on Sunday morning on a residential neighborhood, attacking the main street and a market at the entrance of Yarim city with 5 missiles. That resulted in the destruction of 11 homes and damaged scores of adjoining buildings and houses. The city is facing difficulties in providing rescue services and medical aid due to insufficient resources and the crowding of victims at the city hospital. Scarcity of medical supplies in health centers and the critical conditions of the injuries contribute to expectations of a rising death toll.

List of the dead as reported by HRW:

Date: 7/19/2015

Name	Gender	Age	Killed/Wounded
Ziad Akram Ali al-Farz`i	Male	17	Killed
Muhammad Sa’ad Saleh al-Nazhi	Male	43	Killed
Shadad Sa’ad Saleh al-Nazhi	Male	35	Killed
Rasha Muhammad Sa’ad Saleh al-Nazhi	Female	13	Killed
Sa’ad Muhammad Sa’ad al-Nazhi	Male	8	Killed
Su`ad Muhammad Ahmed al-Khubani	Female	37	Killed
Amin Majid Ali Zid (?) al-Suwaidi	Male	4	Killed
Mariam Shadad Sa’ad Saleh al-Nazhi	Female	6	Killed
Muna Shadad Sa’ad Saleh al-Nazhi	Female	5	Killed
Sawsan Shadad Sa’ad Saleh al-Nazhi	Female	3	Killed
Abdu Said al-Wesabi	Male	43	Killed
Najla Ali Qasim	Female	25	Killed
Saqr Adnan al-Shu`ibi	Male	3	Killed
Nasimah Adnan al-Shu`ibi	Female	10	Killed
Hani Abdullah Muhammad al-Ansi	Male	27	Killed
Fathia Muhammad Abdullah al-Ansi	Female	37	Killed
Majid Ali Zid al-Suwaidi	Male	35	Wounded
Rasha Shadad Sa’ad Saleh al-Nazhi	Female	13	Wounded
Salma Muhammad Aiash	Female	over 18	Wounded
Ibrahim Muhammad Sa’ad al-Nazhi	Male	20	Wounded
Hisham Mukhtar al-Ansi	Male	25	Wounded
Mukhtar al-Ansi	Male	35	Wounded
Muhammad Muhammad Sa’ad al-Nazhi	Male	over 18	Wounded
Jarallah Omar al-Siri	Male	25	Wounded
Ali Qasim	Male	60	Wounded
Fatima	Female	65	Wounded
Walid Rajab	Male	35	Wounded
Belkis	Female	35	Wounded
Rafiqah Muhammad al-Nazhi	Female	40	Wounded
Hana Sa’ad al-Nazhi	Female	50	Wounded
Elham Ali Muhammad Qasim	Female	17	Wounded
Hasna Yahya Gaber	Female	over 18	Wounded

Ref: 15071901

16th July 2015, 1 child killed and 7 civilians injured when Saudi led coalition airstrikes hit residential area in Sana'a

On the 16th July 2015, Saudi airstrikes hit a residential area in the Al-Ansy neighborhood, in the Aser area of Sana'a killing at least one child and wounding several others. It occured in the hours before the festival of Eid al-Fitr.

The bombardment targeted civilian houses and the neighbourhood mosque and it also damaged Sabaa University which was in the same area as this raid.

A brief translation of the following video is as follows: The Saudi-led coalition carried out a chain of bombardment a few hours before the start of Eid Al Fitr celebrations in the Al Ansy Area of Aser district in Sanaa, causing a massive destruction to Sabaa University, Al Zahra Mosque and many numbers of homes as well as the perimeter of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Al Dina Airbase . Many civilians are wounded, some are in critical condition. A decapitated child’s body was retrieved. The family is distraught to have to search for their daughter’s head and are in a dilemma whether to bury the headless body or to continue searching and delay the burial. Victims are raising their voices as to why after 100 days of Saudi war against Yemen, the KSA still targets residential neighborhoods and mosques, especially on a special Muslim day of celebration.

WARNING: the following video of the incident is graphic and distressing. It is put here as evidence of war crimes to call for an independent UN investigation and to call on Western countries to honour the Arms Treaty and stop the supply of weapons to Saudi Arabia.
 

Ref: 15071601

12th July, air stikes on Madinat al-Ummal, Sawan, Sanaa, yemen, killing 23 civilians including 7 women and 14 children.

On Sunday evening of 12th July until dawn of 13th July 2014, Saudi led coalition air strikes targeted the workers' town of Madinat al-Ummal in Sanaa. The al-Ummal area is located in the Sawan neighborhood of the capital and is home to a Yemeni marginalised community called the Mohamasheen. The strikes resulted in the death of at least 23 civilians, including 7 women and 14 children, and injuring at least 31.

These videos document the Saudi led coalition air strikes on Yemen. WARNING, they are EXTREMELY GRAPHIC and DISTRESSING. They are put here as evidence to support the call for an independent enquiry into war crimes and to call on the West to stop supplying arms to Saudi Arabia.



A resident from a nearby neighbourhood who heard the bombardment himself told Jamila "We're still wondering why they hit Madinat al Ummal (workers blocks)  they are very, very poor people.. always working and begging in the streets. The government built those houses for them." 

This is HRW's report of the incident:

At about 12:30 a.m. on July 12, an airstrike killed 23 people, all from the same family, including seven women and 14 children, from the ages of 2 months to 16 years, in Sanaa’s residential neighborhood of Sawan. The strike also wounded 31 people. The area is populated by the marginalized muhamashee people part of Yemen’s minority group, about 11 percent of the population, that suffers social segregation and discrimination, including in accessing public education and employment.

Human Rights Watch examined the site on July 20. The blast destroyed 10 small, single-story houses and damaged another 50. Remnants of the control fins of a laser-guided bomb were photographed by Amnesty International at the site of the attack. We were unable to discern whether the bomb was deliberately guided to the impact point or whether there was a malfunction of the guidance system or other mistake that caused the bomb to strike this spot.

Residents told Human Rights Watch that an airstrike hit the External Medical Clinic, a military medical facility located next to the Military Engineers’ Compound, about 500 meters away, about five minutes after the strike on the homes. Human Rights sought access to the compound, but armed guards denied us entry, saying they would need to get authorization.

Majid al-Jamal, 30, whose relatives were killed in the blast, said he was sleeping at the time the bomb struck:

"I didn’t hear the strike itself, or the plane. But I awoke to the sound of bricks being smashed against the side of my home. I jumped out of bed and rushed outside and saw burned bodies, but I could not do anything to help."

Yumna Obayth, 35, a mother of 10 whose house was damaged in the strike, said:

 "Why, I ask, why would they bomb us? We have no guns, no food, nothing. We are poor. They brought down the house over the heads of my children. Now we are living outside in the street, what can I do?"

The Military Engineers’ Compound was a legitimate military target. The nearby military medical facility was not a valid military target—medical facilities, including those serving military personnel, may not be targeted unless they are being used to commit hostile acts and a warning has been given. The proximity of the hospital to the engineer’s compound unnecessarily placed it at risk of being damaged in an attack on the compound.

https://www.hrw.org/node/283702

List of the dead as reported by HRW:

Location: Sawan, Sanaa
Date: 7/12/2015

Name	Gender	Age	Killed/Wounded
Shuba Khamis al-Jamal	Female	60	Killed
Musa Hassan Rajih al-Jamal	Male	35	Killed
Asad Musa Hassan Rajih al-Jamal	Male	16	Killed
Alaallah Hassan Ahmed Hals al-Jamal	Female	70	Killed
Hassan Musa Hassan Rajih al-Jamal	Male	14	Killed
Nasir Musa Hassan Rajih al-Jamal	Male	10	Killed
Ashuaq Musa Hassan Rajih al-Jamal	Female	8	Killed
Raziki Musa Hassan Rajih al-Jamal	Female	2 months	Killed
Mariam Muhsin al-Awdi	Female	20	Killed
Dhaifallah Said Khamis al-Jamal	Male	4	Killed
Kusi Said Khamis al-Jamal	Male	3	Killed
Odai Said Khamis al-Jamal	Male	2	Killed
Amora Ali Khamis al-Jamal	Female	22	Killed
Mutasim Darwish Hassan Rajih al-Jamal	Male	2	Killed
Musa Darwish Hassan Rajih al-Jamal	Male	4	Killed
Fuad Darwish Hassan Rajih al-Jamal	Male	2 months	Killed
Afnan Salim Hassan Rajih al-Jamal	Female	12	Killed
Kefaya Amar Khamis Sa`ad al-Jamal	Female	6	Killed
Yahya Saad al-Jamal	Male	18	Killed
Samara Muhammad Khamis Sa`ad al-Jamal	Female	20	Killed
Shuia Musa Hassan Rajih al-Jamal	Female	2	Killed
Mariam Darwish Gurina	Female	30	Killed
Sahlah Abdullah Hassan al-Jamal	Female	30	Killed

*The list of wounded is available in hard copy with Human Rights Watch

This is Mwatana's report of the incident:

http://mwatana.org/sites/default/files/pdf/Blind%20Airstrikes%20Report.pdf

Ref: 15071201

9th July 2015, airstrike hits school sheltering displaced in Lahj governate, Yemen, killing family of 10

9th July 2015, a Saudi led coalition airstrike hit a school sheltering the displaced in Tahrur village in the Lahj governate north of Aden, Yemen, killing a family of 10 including 4 children and 5 women.

This following is Amnesty's report of the incident:

TAHRUR, LAHJ, 9 JULY

On 9 July coalition forces killed 10 members of the Faraa family, including four children and five women, and injured 10 others when they bombed the Mus’ab ben Omar school where a dozen families displaced by the conflict were sheltering in Tahrur village, north of Aden in Lahj governorate on 9 July at about 1pm. The displaced people who were sheltering in the school are members of the “muhammashin” (marginalised) community – Yemeni citizens of African origins, one of the country’s poorest and most vulnerable communities in the country.

Salama, who lost three daughters, Yusra, 21, Shadia, 19, and Naama, 20 months, in the bombing, told Amnesty International:

“We came here to escape the war in Huta (a 1km west of Tahrur). We had nowhere else to go. We have nothing. How could I imagine that we were going to be killed here? My girls were killed and I wish I had died with them. I have nothing else in life”.

Mehdi Salah Mohammed, a bus driver in the army, was based in Hodeida but has not worked since the beginning of the conflict after his commanding officer stopped reporting to work. To supplement his salary he would make deliveries with his motorcycle. Mehdi told Amnesty International that on 9 July he was out on an errand when an airstrike hit his home, killing his wife, Naama, a mother of seven, and whose 5-year-old daughter Rahma was seriously wounded, said:

“We are just poor people and don’t have anything to do with anything. We have no relations with the Huthis. We fled our homes with nothing and when we tried to go back home to collect some of our clothes the Huthis didn’t even allow us to go. I lost my wife and now our seven children have no mother. What do I tell them? My wife’s sister and niece were killed and their children too are now orphans. May God help us.”

Neighbours told Amnesty International that the last time they saw any Huthis was four days before the strike, when two Huthis passed by the school but did not stop. They said that before the airstrike Huthis used to stay in a school and nearby building in another part of the village, less than a kilometre away. However, that location was never targeted by coalition forces and neighbours said that Huthi/Saleh loyalists armed groups stopped gathering there after the strike on the Mus’ab Ben Omar school, which killed members of the Faraa family. Amnesty International found no evidence indicating that the Mus’ab Ben Omar school was being used for military purposes. All that was visible in the ruins of the school were remains of the meagre possessions of the displaced families who had been sheltering there – blankets, cooking pots, children’s clothes - as well as a fin of a bomb from the Mark 80 series US-designed general purpose bombs, similar to those found at many other locations of coalition strikes.

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

Ref: 15070901