On the morning of 25th October, the Saudi led coalition airstrikes targeted a food warehouse located in Sanaa, Road 45, in a residential neighbourhood. The warehouse burned to the ground along with all its food contents. The bombardment also destroyed nearby homes, shops, cars and damaged the Naser Specialist Hospital where 10 patients were injured.
The video below reports that the loss of the warehouse is devastating to traders as well as to consumers, who already suffer from food shortages due to the Saudi blockade. A few meters away from the warehouse, Naser Specialist Hospital suffered similar damage to its Surgery wing, Intensive Care Unit, and Emergency center. In brief, all facilities and their medical equipment were destroyed. Ten patients were injured and had to be transferred to hospitals in the capital Sanaa.
Civilians cried angrily in response to the destruction of the food warehouse, as seen in the video, holding packets of the damaged food of children’s sweets, cakes, and potato chips. At the hospital, doctors pointed at the damaged equipment and patients’ x-rays. They are saying that Saudis are hitting randomly, targeting civilians and their basic means of survival.
On Thursday 22nd October the Saudi coalition airstrikes targeted fishermen at Aqban Island, a Yemeni island in the Red Sea. 42 civilians were killed including 5 children and at least 8 were wounded. The Saudi coalition released videos to back up their claim that the fishermen were smuggling weapons - however the videos did not prove anything conclusive. The fishermen and local community vehemently denied anything other than fishing and it was well known to be the shrimping season in that area. Over the following days bodies were found washed up on the shore.
Airstrikes hit fishermen asleep on boats at Aqban island 10/22. Dozens killed. Survivors say won't return to the sea pic.twitter.com/Qh0M0oSz0l
On 15th April 2015, the Saudi led coalition airstrikes bombed a residential area in Hawth in Amran governorate in Yemen, killing up to 45 people including women and children, and injuring up to 70 more.
The airstrikes hit two bridges, shops, a petrol station, cars, a gas locomotive, a truck carrying animal feed, shops, markets and homes. One of the strikes on a bridge killed IDPs as they were fleeing the area of Saada to take refuge in Amran, following the official announcement by the Saudi led coalition that Saada was a target and that civilians should leave the area.
The following report by the Legal Center for Rights and Development documents the crimes, and states that this was a poor residential area with no military camp located there.
The following videos recorded some of the damage in that area at that time. WARNING they include some graphic footage that you may find disturbing.
On the 9th April 2015, the Saudi led coalition airstrikes on Yemen killed 10 people including 2 women and 2 children in Amran, destroyed several governmental facilities, a cement factory, a mosque, a water plant in Saada and grain silos in Aden port.
This is the Legal Center for Rights and Development's preliminary report for that day:
On 4th April 2015, the Saudi led coaltion airstrikes targeted 5 trucks of wheat on their way to Taiz city, killing at least 4 people and injuring at least 5.Between 4th/5th they also destroyed Agan bridge linking Taiz and Lahj. In addition, there were reports of 3 houses destroyed in Hodeidah, killing 3 and injuring 9, as well as a mosque destroyed in Hodeidah.
Suadi/US led air strike has targeted today wheat trucks killing 4&injuring 5.this shipment was going to Taiz city pic.twitter.com/ViijRGI7qF
— Hussain Albukhaiti (@HussainBukhaiti) April 5, 2015
Saudi/US led air strike today has destroyed A'agaan bridge between Taiz and Lahj. pic.twitter.com/haY6kw7NtG
— Hussain Albukhaiti (@HussainBukhaiti) April 5, 2015
What does those ppl think of the Saudi/US air strike that destroyed their bridge!! pic.twitter.com/EgvPFQHabu
— Hussain Albukhaiti (@HussainBukhaiti) April 6, 2015
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
