On the 13th December 2015, the Saudi led coalition airstrikes bombarded Ghaza village in Harad district in Hajaah province with over 3 raids. The initial death toll was 30 killed and one injured. Women, children and the elderly were among the victims. It was reported that civilian houses were hit and then paramedics and those in cars trying to rescue the victims were also targeted by a double tap strike,
A media representative couldn’t bear looking at a decapitated body of a child while capturing footage. One neighbour commented “The Kingdom of Saudia Arabia have bombed very poor people who don’t even have enough money to buy bread. They are considering us an experiment field, trying out all sorts of weapons from the overcrowded American and European warehouses.”
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.
On 27th Sept 2015, the Saudi led coalition fired upon a small village in Zeila village in Harad district, about 100 kms to the North West of Hajja city and close to the Saudi border. At least 18 civilians were killed including 14 childrena and 4 women, and 9 were wounded including 4 children and a woman.
A first bomb landed in an empty area wounding 1 person, a second in the middle of the village but failed to detonate. Residents then fled the area and a 3rd bomb was fired on those fleeing the scene.
There were some reports that it was an Apache helicopter that fired on the fleeing civilians, however Yemeni human rights organisation Mwatana recorded the incident as 'coalition fighter jets'.
Warning: the media below is extremely graphic and distressing. It is put here as evidence to call for a UN investigation and to call on Western governments to respect the Arms Treaty by stopping the transfer of weapons to Saudi Arabia.
On 4th July 2015, the Saudi led coalition airstrikes hit a gas station, a hotel, a restaurant and a busy market place in the district of Harad in Yemen, injuring at killing at least 65 people, including at least 3 children, and injuring 105 more.
HRW reported:
At about 10 p.m. on July 4, coalition aircraft bombed the marketplace in the middle of the village of Muthalith [triangle] Ahim, about 20 kilometers south of the Saudi border in Yemen’s northwest. Because the attack occurred during the holy month of Ramadan, the area was crowded with people breaking their fast in restaurants late in the evening. The airstrike destroyed at least six buildings along the main road of the village, including a four-story building housing the Sanaa Restaurant, a small shop and hotel, and a water truck and car parked outside.
Human Rights Watch examined the site on July 24 and spoke to the staff of four hospitals that received the dead and wounded, as well as officials with the Ministry of Human Rights. The attack killed at least 65 people, including at least six African migrants and three children, and wounded at least 105. Forty of the wounded who were sent to al-Jumhouri Hospital in Hajja were suffering from metal fragment injuries, and most needed surgery, according to a nurse who was on call that night.
Muhammad Hassan, 35, a waiter at Sanaa Restaurant who was wounded in the attack, told Human Rights Watch that several hours earlier, there had been a strike on a gas station about two kilometers (1.2 miles) further north. Then, about an hour later, there was a strike on a football field about one kilometer (0.6 miles) away, and at the same time another strike on an empty building about two kilometers away. He said he had heard from some people in town that the Houthis were using the empty building to store weapons.[83] None of the other interviewees raised this allegation with Human Rights Watch.
Hassan estimated that at the time of the strike, there were about 50 people in the restaurant, and about 100 in the hotel above. Outside the restaurant, there was a large open space with fishmongers and people selling vegetables, cell phones, qat, and other items. He believed that there were also about 50 to 60 African migrants, as well as many displaced Yemenis from northern border villages, sitting on the steps of the restaurant at the time of the bombing. Hassan told Human Rights Watch:
"I was outside in the alley beside the restaurant taking out the trash when the strike hit. I saw fire and smelled gunpowder. The pressure of the explosion threw me back about 10 meters into a pile of trash bags. I tasted blood, and felt a pain in my chest, and then I lost consciousness. I woke up here at the Hajja hospital, only to find out that 13 waiters from the restaurant who worked with me were killed in the explosion."
Muhammad’s doctor said he had metal fragment injuries to his left shoulder, chest, and right leg. After multiple surgeries, Muhammad had yet to regain movement in his left arm.
Salem al-Mashwali, 40, a truck driver who was in the market at the time, described the scene after the explosion:
"I counted 45 bodies intact, many lying under the stalls of the qat sellers. I saw other bodies that had been shattered to bits, some already stiff. People all around me were shouting. I saw the driver of the water truck, a friend of mine, and his assistant both dead in the vehicle, as it was burning. I witnessed a terrible thing, a very scary scene."
Dr. Adnan al-Wazzan, a pharmacist at al-Jumhouri Hospital in Hajja, some 140 kilometers (87 miles) away, drove an ambulance to Muthalith Ahim after the strike:
"We got news of the strike about 30 minutes after it happened, but we waited two hours before leaving because we were scared the coalition might target us on the road. We finally left at 12:30 a.m. While on the road we passed a truck carrying 23 of the victims—we stopped the driver to see if we should help the people on the truck or keep driving. It was piled high with bodies, heads open and bleeding. Two of the people in the truck were already dead, another 10 were near death. We kept on driving and made it to the Bani Hassan medical center [in Hajja, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Muthalith Ahim], where most of the wounded had been brought. I will never forget the scene—there were bodies all over the floor."
Abd al-Rauf al-Silwi, 52, a mechanical engineer who went to the site of the bombing early the next morning, told Human Rights Watch:
"When I arrived, there were still many bodies—most of their faces looked normal, like they were sleeping, just with some marks from metal fragments. In front of Sanaa Restaurant, I saw one man with his backbone sticking out of his neck. By the qat market, I saw dozens of bodies, charred, some headless, others without legs. I saw 10 bodies inside the Hadramawt Restaurant, many missing their arms and legs, all killed while they were in the middle of having their dinner. The arm of one man was still attached to the large water cooler by the entrance. A water truck had exploded, and I saw the head of the driver hanging off the end of what was left of the truck."
It is not clear if any Houthi or allied fighters were killed in the attack. Al-Mashwali, the truck driver, told Human Rights Watch there had been a Houthi checkpoint about 50 meters (55 yards) from where the strike hit, manned by 10 to 12 Houthi fighters.
Witnesses who spoke to Human Rights Watch said the strike did not damage the checkpoint.
Even if the checkpoint, a legitimate military objective, was the target of the attack, the coalition should conduct an investigation to determine if all feasible precautions were taken to minimize the harm to civilians, and whether the attack as carried out was unlawfully indiscriminate or disproportionate. https://www.hrw.org/node/283702
Action on Armed Violence reported:
"on 4 July, two air strikes hit a busy market in Beni Hassan in Hajjah province, in an area known as the Aahem triangle. The first explosion hit a cooking-gas station at about 8.30pm. The second, half an hour later, fell in the heart of a crowded market as well as two neighbouring restaurants and a hotel."
SANA'A, YEMEN/NEW YORK—Medical facilities supported
by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have received
hundreds of people wounded in airstrikes and ground shelling across Yemen
in recent days, and MSF teams have treated scores of people in several
locations, including victims of a July 4 attack on a crowded marketplace
in Harad District.
An MSF team treated more than 67 injured persons in Beni Hassan, in
northwestern Yemen's Harad District, following a series of airstrikes
targeting a busy marketplace after people broke Ramadan's fast on the
night of July 4. An estimated 20 people were killed in the attack in the
market, and the MSF team recovered nine dead bodies among the debris
the following day. An elderly injured man was also rescued and
transferred to Beni Hassan health center, where MSF has provided support
since May 2015.
"It is unacceptable that airstrikes take place in highly concentrated
civilian areas where people are gathering and going about their daily
lives, especially at a time such as Ramadan," said Colette Gadenne, MSF
head of mission in Yemen.
The attack on the market in Beni Hassan, called Aahem triangle, first
hit a cooking-gas station at about 8:30 p.m. At about 9:00 p.m., a
second attack hit the heart of the crowded market, as well as two
restaurants and a hotel.
The MSF team was called to Beni Hassan an hour later, when private
cars and public transport vehicles were already taking dozens of injured
people to the health center. The team stabilized the wounded patients
and referred three to the main hospitals of the region, al Jumhuri
(Hajjah City) and al Olafi and al Thawara hospitals (Hodeida City).
MSF donated war-wounded kits for 100 persons to al Jumhuri hospital,
which received over 40 referrals in total, and also provided fuel and
ambulances.
Medical teams were quickly overwhelmed by the number of wounded
persons and the severity of their injuries. "It has been terrible. We
could never have imagined that we could receive so many severely injured
people at one time in a small health center like Beni Hassan," said one
member of the MSF team, Dr. Ammar. "The whole team is shocked by what
they have seen, especially since it happened to people enjoying an
evening in Ramadan."
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: Muthalith Ahem Date: 7/4/2015
Name
Gender
Age
Killed/Wounded
Abdul Salam al-Raimi
Male
over 18
Killed
Abdullah al-Aawar
Male
over 18
Killed
Faisal Ahmad
Male
over 18
Killed
Bashir Ali
Male
over 18
Killed
Abdu Ali
Male
over 18
Killed
Muhammad Ahmad
Male
over 18
Killed
Abdu Ali al-Raimi
Male
over 18
Killed
Waddah Said
Male
over 18
Killed
Shawki Ahmad
Male
over 18
Killed
Ali Shuai
Male
over 18
Killed
Majid Ali
Male
over 18
Killed
Sultan Ahmad
Male
over 18
Killed
Muhammad Hassan Hassan Abkar
Male
35
Wounded
Muhammad Ahmad al-Raimi
Male
over 18
Wounded
al-Maslamani
Male
over 18
Killed
His assistant
Male
over 18
Killed
Faisal Ali Yusif
Male
22
Killed
Hassan Rabia Muhammad
Male
27
Killed
Abdul Wahid al-Zabidi
Male
40
Killed
* The rest of the list is available with Abs Clinic and Jumhouri Hospital in Hajja City.
