Tuesday 31 March 2015

31st Mar 2015, airstrikes on margarine, soap and dairy factories in Al Hodeidah Yemen

Starting shortly before midnight on Tuesday 31st March 2015 through until dawn on Wednesday 1st April 2015,  Saudi-led coalition forces targeted the Yamani factory complex in Al Hodeidah, to the West of Yemen, which included margarine, soap and dairy factories. Reports state that at least 31 were killed and 11 more injured.

http://yemenobserver.com/news-national/1451-saudi-aggression-bombs-dairy-factory-in-hodeidah.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-32142549

A local Yemeni said to Jamila: "Many factory workers were killed and dozens wounded, bodies charred turned into just skeletons or ash. These factories were some of the largest dairy factories in Yemen, in the private sector: they employed hundreds of workers and served a large segment of the society, including the provision of milk to children as it was the main dairy factory in the area. It would take 2 years and a $30 million investment to rebuild them."


An Amnesty International report stated:

A 23-year-old man injured in a strike that struck a factory in Hodeidah on 31 March was left paraplegic after a piece of shrapnel became lodged in his vertebrae. The director of the hospital inside the factory complex said the hospital was overwhelmed with casualties after the attack. The nearest military target, an army base, was more than 300 metres away.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/04/yemen-investigate-relentless-airstrikes-that-have-left-hundreds-of-civilians-dead/


HRW reported:

Starting at about 11:10 p.m. on March 31, one or more warplanes carried out four separate strikes that hit the dairy factory, three factory workers and three local residents told Human Rights Watch. Dr. Hani Mahfoodh, an emergency doctor at 22 May Hospital in Hodaida, which received most of the victims, told Human Rights Watch that the strikes killed at least 31 factory employees, for whom he provided the names, and wounded at least 11 more...

Two people who were about 100 to 200 meters from the factory, and another who was about 2 kilometers away, said they saw one or more planes take part in the attack. A factory worker told Human Rights Watch that after his shift ended at 11 p.m., he waited with colleagues at the factory gate for the employee bus. At 11:10 p.m., he heard the sound of aircraft, which he had seen bombing elsewhere in Hodaida earlier that evening. A few seconds later, he saw one of the factory warehouses explode. “We rushed to the doors of the nearest building full of staff, and held open the doors as people ran out,” he said.

A few minutes later he saw a second explosion in a part of the factory that housed packaging equipment, causing water boilers to explode. The ground shook beneath him, he said. He later discovered that the explosion also caused leaks in gas pipes used in the cooling process. The worker said he witnessed ambulance workers take several people who may have inhaled the gas fumes to a hospital.
He said that a few minutes later he saw a third explosion in another part of the factory, setting the building on fire. Three workers in the building died while trying to turn off the machines. There was a fourth explosion several minutes later in the same part of the factory.

Another factory worker said he was inside another factory building during the first explosion. He was wounded by the second explosion but remained to aid other wounded and the ambulance staff. “In the aftermath of the strikes I saw body parts and charred bodies and hands and legs scattered,” he told Human Rights Watch. “I could not sleep for two days afterward because of the terrible images in my mind.”

A third factory employee who saw the explosions said that fires continued to blaze until the next morning.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/04/15/yemen-factory-airstrike-killed-31-civilians-0 


WARNING, these videos 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.






The following daily report by the Legal Center for Rights and Development also confirms the attack.



Ref: 15033102


31st March 2015, air strikes on Yarim and Kitab, houses, petrol stations, food truck

On Tuesday 31st March 2015, Saudi led coalition air strikes hit the city of Yarim in Ibb province, central Yemen, completely destroying at least 3 houses (damaging more), killing and wounding many, including women and children. Two petrol stations were also targeted in the city of Kitab and a tanker carrying foodstuff travelling between Yarim and Kitab was also hit, resulting in further deaths and injuries of civilians. In total at least 14 were killed (likely more), including at least 4 children and 2 women, and at least 31 people were injured.

WARNING, this video is GRAPHIC and DISTRESSING. It is put here as evidence to support the call for an independent UN enquiry into war crimes and to call on the West to stop supplying arms to Saudi Arabia.





 Jamila spoke to a cousin of one of the victims, he said:
"He wasn't Houthi or something, he even didn't give a damn thing about politics, an ordinary young man who worked in a fuel station".

This was Amnesty International's report of the incident:

There is growing evidence that the Saudi Arabian-led military coalition is failing to take precautions to prevent civilian deaths amid ongoing airstrikes on sites around Yemen, Amnesty International said, as it confirmed that at least six civilians, including four children, were among 14 people who burned to death in further strikes early this morning.

The attacks, carried out at around 2 AM in Ibb governorate, were apparently targeting a Huthi checkpoint as well as fuel supplies along the road between Yareem and Dhammar. The dead included four children and two women, as well as eight men, but it is unknown if any of those were fighters. At least 31 others were hospitalized with burns and shrapnel wounds.

“After several days of often intense bombardment in several areas across Yemen, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the Saudi Arabian-led coalition is turning a blind eye to civilian deaths and suffering caused by its military intervention,” said Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

“International humanitarian law requires all warring parties to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians amid the hostilities.”
Precautions include giving effective advance warning of attacks which may endanger the civilian population, cancelling or suspending an attack if it becomes clear that it is likely to cause excessive civilian casualties or damage, and choosing means and methods of attack that minimize the risk to civilians and civilian objects.

Two petrol stations were destroyed in the airstrikes on Ibb governorate. According to the owner of one of the stations, in al-Kadima area in al-Kita, several passengers were killed in a car which had stopped to refuel, and a petrol station worker was injured. Amnesty International has not been able to ascertain if there were casualties at the other petrol station.

A third strike, apparently aimed at a passing fuel tanker, set fire to at least three civilian homes within a cluster of around 30-40 homes.

Dr. Hamood al-Jihafi in Yareem hospital told Amnesty International how the dead and injured arrived after suffering horrific burns and shrapnel injuries.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/03/yemen-civilians-burn-to-death-in-further-airstrikes/

The following document is are report from the Legal Center for Rights and Development regarding the same incident.







Source: YemenWar.info






Monday 30 March 2015

30th March 2015, civilian casualties following Saudi airstrikes on Faj Attan in Sanaa, Yemen

On the 30th March 2015, the Saudi led coalition airstrikes targeted a weapons depot in Faj Attan (Mount Attan) in Sanaa. There were reports of civilian casualties from the explosions.










Local news reports:
http://www.khabaragency.net/news23836.html 
http://www.yementodaytv.net/details.php?recordID=25689

The preliminary report for that day from the Legal Center for Rights and Development stated 11 civilians killed including a child in Sanaa, plus 36 wounded including 10 women.



Ref: 15033002

30th March 2015, 8 killed on bus in Aden and 5 in a home when coalition airstrike hits civilians in Yemen

On 30th March 2015, 13 civilians were reported to have been killed by coaltion airstrikes in Aden, Yemen. One strike reportedly hit a bus killing 8 people, including 1 women, in the area of Khor Maksar, and the other reportedly hit a house behind the University of Aden, killing 5 people.

http://www.khabaragency.net/news23850.html


One the same night there were also reports of civilian injuries as a result of air raids on air defences, located near Hawban, in the area of Taiz. Names of the injured include Abdul Hafiz Mohammad Rajab, Omar Ahmed Ali, Mohammed Abdu Qasim and his wife and children.
http://www.khabaragency.net/news23857.html

This local news report mentions civilian deaths and injuries in Marib:
http://www.yementodaytv.net/details.php?recordID=25690


The preliminary report for that day from the Legal Center for Rights and Development stated 25 killed and 42 injured in Zonjbar Road in Aden, as well as 3 civilians killed and 3 injured in Marib.



Ref: 15033003

30th March 2105, airstrikes hit camp for the displaced on Yemen border

On 30th March 2015, Saudi led coalition air strikes targeted Al Mazrak camp for displaced people in Yemen's Hajjah province, resulting in at least 29 deaths and 41 injuries. This camp is next to the Saudi border, part of a cluster of camps which are home to thousands of Yemenis displaced by over a decade of wars between the Houthis and the Yemeni state, as well as East African migrants.

Amnesty International reported:

29 civilians, including children, were killed in airstrikes on a bridge at al-Mazraq camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) on 30 March in Sa'ada, in northern Yemen near the border with Saudi Arabia.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/03/yemen-civilians-burn-to-death-in-further-airstrikes/

Action on Armed Violence reported:
 
There have been several air strikes which have resulted in a large number of civilian deaths and injuries in Yemen, such as the bombing of a displacement camp in Mazraq on 30 March which killed at least 40 people..
http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/State-of-Crisis.pdf

MSF reported:

More than two dozen people injured in an airstrike today at a displaced persons camp in northern Yemen have been treated by the international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

The bombardment this morning hit the Al Mazraq Camp, located in Hajjah Governorate. At least 34 people wounded in the attack were brought by ambulance to the MSF-supported hospital in the town of Haradh. Twenty-nine people were dead on arrival, among them women and children. According to witnesses, the airstrike may have caused a larger number of wounded. 

“People in Al Mazraq camp have been living in very harsh conditions since 2009, and now they have suffered the consequences of an airstrike on the camp,” said Pablo Marco, operational manager for Yemen. “We call all parties to spare civilians from violence, respect the neutrality of medical facilities and staff, and allow unhindered access to medical assistance for the wounded.”

Al Mazraq Camp was established in 2009, when thousands of people fled fighting between government troops and Houthi forces in Saada Governorate. Roughly 500 new families arrived in the camp over the last two days, escaping bombings in the western area of Saada.
http://www.msf.org/article/yemen-msf-treats-34-wounded-after-airstrike-camp-displaced-people

HRW reported: 

The airstrikes by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition that hit a displaced persons’ camp in northern Yemen on March 30, 2015, raised grave concerns about violations of the laws of war. The airstrikes killed at least 29 civilians and wounded 41, including 14 children and 11 women. They hit a medical facility at the camp, a local market, and a bridge, according to initial reports from the World Health Organization.
...

Sometime before 11 a.m. on March 30, one or more warplanes of unidentified nationality struck multiple sites at one of the three camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Mazraq, in Hajja governorate of northern Yemen, about six kilometers from the border with Saudi Arabia.

Khaled Mareh, one of the camp managers, told Human Rights Watch that at 10:50 a.m., as he was standing at the camp gate, an explosion knocked him back: “I first heard the sound of a distant plane, then the deafening explosion. I saw body parts scattered in front of me, charred bodies, torn tents, and a large amount of shrapnel that hit the gate and charred the cars.” He said he saw a second explosion hit a section of the camp about 500 meters away, which he later learned killed several children from the camp who were walking to school. From a distance, he saw a third explosion at the western gate of the camp, and a fourth that hit the market.

A local aid worker present at the time said that he saw one aircraft carry out a strike at the camp: “I saw the plane strike 500 meters from the International Organization for Migration office. It shook the building and rattled the windows.” The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator to Yemen, Johannes Van Der Klaauw, stated on March 31 that all the structures hit constituted civilian infrastructure.
....
Mareh, the camp manager, said that Ansar Allah has a security office at the camp, near the market, but that it had been empty for three days, since the guards left to join military operations at the border. He said he did not hear any artillery or other fire in the area before the strikes, and that the camp authorities never allow armed people to enter the camp, including that morning. Another witness told Human Rights Watch that he did not see any armed men at the camp prior to the strikes, nor did he hear any fire.

None of the countries participating in the coalition have provided information that the camps are a legitimate military target. When asked about the strikes, a Saudi military official, Brig. Gen. Ahmad al-Assiri, said, “It could have been that the fighter jets replied to fire, and we cannot confirm that it was a refugee camp.”
....
Following the attack, over 400 residents fled the camp and are seeking refuge elsewhere, Mareh said.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/04/01/yemen-airstrike-camp-raises-grave-concerns

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.



The following is a report from the  Legal Center for Rights and Development for the same date, confirming the incident:






This is the initial daily report from the Legal Center for Rights and Development that lists this incident as well as others that happened on the same day.







Sunday 29 March 2015

29th Mar 2015, 9 civilians killed by airstrikes in Yemen, inc 1 woman, 40 injured inc 5 children casualties

On 29th March 2015, there were reports of 9 civilians killed, including 1 woman , by the Saudi led coalition airstrikes in Sana'a and Hajja province in Yemen, plus 40 injuries, including 5 children, as well as damage to several houses.




This local news reports mentions civilian deaths and injuries in Sanaa as a result of bombing on the presidential palace and airport, damaging neighboring residential areas:

Ref: 15032901

Saturday 28 March 2015

28th March 2015, airports and cooking gas station in Yemen targeted by coalition airstrikes

On 28th March 2015, the Saudi led coaltion airstrikes targeted Hodeidah airport and Sanna international airport in Yemen, resulting in a number of civilian injuries.

Local news reports:
http://www.khabaragency.net/news23772.html
http://www.khabaragency.net/news23799.html
http://www.yementodaytv.net/details.php?recordID=25646
http://www.yementodaytv.net/details.php?recordID=25660






Coalition airstrikes also destroyed the hydro and propane station in Saada. The station was providing around 8,000 propane gas tanks per day to be used for home cooking.

Source: YemenWar.info

 

There were also reports of an airstrike on a school and an electricity plant in Saada
http://www.khabaragency.net/news23757.html 

This local news report for that day mentions further civilian casualties as a result of airstrikes:
http://www.yementodaytv.net/details.php?recordID=25628 

This report states civilian injuries including 2 children and 1 woman as a result of airstrikes in Saada province, as well as the cutting of gas and power to the city:
http://www.yementodaytv.net/details.php?recordID=25655

 


This report states 3 civilian injuries and damage to property as a result of airstrikes Haada Street in the capital Sanaa:

Ref: 15280401

Friday 27 March 2015

Day 2 of airstrikes, 27th March 2015, Manfath Albuqeh Market, Kitaf

On 27th March Saudi led coalition air strikes hit Manfath Albuqeh Market in the Kitaf region of Yemen in the Sa'ada governorate. At least 20 people were killed including 3 children and 16 more were injured.

WARNING, this video is GRAPHIC and DISTRESSING. It is 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.






Amnesty International reported:
"al-Kitaf market next to the al-Kitaf Military Base was targeted on 27th March, where 20 people, including three children were killed, and 16 were injured."
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/03/yemen-civilians-burn-to-death-in-further-airstrikes/
The following daily reports from the Legal Center for Rights and Development for 27th and 28th March confirms an attack on a market and deaths in that area, although the attack on the market appears to have been listed on the report for 28th March.










http://www.khabaragency.net/news23719.html
http://www.khabaragency.net/news23722.html
http://yna-yemen.net/news/localy/34575
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/fears-over-death-toll-after-second-night-anti-houthi-strikes-yemen-1011124574

This local news report mentions an attack on the 48 medical complex in the South of the capital Sanaa, which is also listed in the above report by the Legal Center for Rights and Development on 27th March.
http://www.yementodaytv.net/details.php?recordID=25636
 
Ref: 15032701

Thursday 26 March 2015

Day 1 of airstrikes, 26th March 2015, many homes hit by Saudi led airstrikes in Bani Hawat residential area Yemen

On 26th March 2015 coalition air raids were launched on a residential area in Sanaa hitting a residential area close to Sanaa airport (Bani Hawat district). 14 houses were reported as completely destroyed with many more damaged, at least 25 people killed  (including at least 6 children and 6 women) and at least 24 injured. 16 cars were also reported as destroyed.

WARNING, this video is GRAPHIC and DISTRESSING. It is 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.




Local news report:


The following is an excerpt from Amnesty International's report of the incident:

Yemen: Six children among dozens killed in Saudi Arabian-led airstrikes

At least six children under the age of 10 were among a reported 25 people killed in Saudi Arabian-led airstrikes in the Yemeni capital Sana’a early this morning, Amnesty International confirmed after speaking to hospital officials and eyewitnesses.

The organization spoke to medical personnel at four different hospitals where the dead were taken after being pulled from the rubble of 14 houses that were hit in a residential neighbourhood near the city’s international airport. The rest of those killed were men, mostly in their 30s and 40s. It is believed that more people may still be buried beneath the rubble, and at least 20, including four women, were admitted to hospital with mainly shrapnel injures.

...

Yemen’s Ministry of Health today said the airstrikes killed 25 people and injured some 40 – it is not yet known if there were any fighters among the casualties.

According to a paramedic who witnessed the aftermath, the airstrike near the airport occurred shortly before 3AM local time, in a residential area called Beni Hawat. Huthi armed groups had allegedly been operating a checkpoint around 100m away, as well as al-Dailami base around 500m away.

Saudi Arabian officials today stated they had destroyed “all Huthi air defences" at al-Dailami base next to Sana’a International Airport.

Beni Hawat was among a number of sites around the city hit by airstrikes overnight as Saudi Arabia announced it was launching a military intervention by a coalition of 10 countries, including five Gulf Cooperation Council states, against the Huthi armed groups. The US government today stated it had “authorized the provision of logistical and intelligence support” to this military intervention, and other governments, including the UK and Turkey, endorsed the move.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/03/yemen-six-children-killed-in-saudi-arabian-airstrikes/

The following is an excerpt from a report by Human Rights Watch concerning the first day of airstrikes:

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition of Arab countries that conducted airstrikes in Yemen on March 26 and 27, 2015, killed at least 11 and possibly as many as 34 civilians during the first day of bombings in Sanaa, the capital, Human Rights Watch said today. The 11 dead included 2 children and 2 women. Saudi and other warplanes also carried out strikes on apparent targets in the cities of Saada, Hodaida, Taiz, and Aden.

Interior Ministry officials linked to Ansar Allah shared with Human Rights Watch details of their final casualty count from the bombings in Sanaa on March 26. They said that warplanes bombed various parts of the city, including Bani Hawat, a predominantly Houthi neighborhood near Sanaa’s international and military airports, and al-Nasr, near the presidential palace. The officials said they had documented that 23 civilians had been killed and 24 wounded. Among the dead were 5 children, ages 2 to 13, 6 women, and an elderly man, they said. The wounded included 12 children, ages 3 to 8, and 2 women.

These numbers are consistent with information provided by two hospitals that Human Rights Watch visited. At the hospitals, Human Rights Watch documented the deaths of 11 civilians, including 2 women and 2 children, whose names were not included among those provided by Interior Ministry officials as well as 14 more wounded, including 3 children and 1 woman.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/03/28/yemen-saudi-led-airstrikes-take-civilian-toll

The following is a report from the  Legal Center for Rights and Development for the same date, confirming the incident:




 




This is Mwatana's report of the incident:













Ref: 15032601