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Airstrikes in Yemen Hit Wedding Party, Killing Dozens Airstrikes in Yemen Hit Wedding Party, Killing Dozens
(about 5 hours later)
SANA, Yemen — Airstrikes by a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition killed at least 70 people early Monday at a wedding celebration in a village on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, according to two local officials. SANA, Yemen — Warplanes with the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition bombed a wedding party on Yemen’s Red Sea coast on Monday, killing at least 70 civilians, according to two local officials and a relative of one of the victims.
The aerial attack in Wahija, south of the port city of Mokha, was at least the third in the last 10 days in which large numbers of civilians were killed by Saudi-led coalition forces. The aerial attack, in Wahija, south of the port city of Mokha, appeared to be among the deadliest involving civilians since the start of Yemen’s war this past March. The death toll was difficult to confirm, in part because the bodies of the victims were badly mangled, witnesses said.
Abdullah al-Fadhli, a local council official who said he visited the scene about three hours after the airstrikes, said that bombs struck two wedding tents, killing dozens of people, including the groom. The killings added to criticism of the Saudi-led coalition for carrying out what human rights advocates and aid workers said was a military campaign that increasingly failed to distinguish between military and civilian targets. The coalition’s stated goal has been to beat back the Houthis, a rebel group from the north that has seized control of Sana, the capital, and other territory that has forced the government into exile.
The Saudi-led coalition has been fighting in Yemen since March, trying to beat back the advance of the Houthis, a rebel group from northern Yemen that took control of Sana, the capital, and drove the Yemeni government into exile. A coalition spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, told Reuters on Monday that the reports of the killings at the wedding were “false news” and that there had been no coalition air operations in the area for the last three days. Efforts to reach General Assiri for further comment were unsuccessful.
Thousands of civilians have been killed during the conflict in Yemen, most of them as a result of the Saudi-led coalition’s bombing campaign, according to human rights groups, international aid workers and diplomats. Thousands of civilians have died as most of western Yemen has been swept up in war, the majority of those killed have come in airstrikes. In almost every case, the Saudi coalition has either denied responsibility for the killings or blamed them on Houthi militants. Saudi Arabia has also sought to head off a mission to Yemen by human rights investigators with the United Nations whom would look into violations by all the warring parties.
“All sides are showing disregard for human life, but most of the casualties are being caused by airstrikes,” Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, said in New York on Monday in an address to the General Assembly. The remarks were his sharpest public criticism to date of the Saudi-led effort, which has received support from the Obama administration. The Obama administration, which has supported the Saudi war effort by providing intelligence and logistical support, has avoided any direct public rebuke of the Saudi government, while calling on coalition war planners to investigate reports of civilian casualties.
“I call for an end to the bombings, which are also destroying Yemeni cities, infrastructure and heritage,” Mr. Ban added, according to a transcript of his remarks. The attack on Monday morning was at least the third time in the last 10 days that the coalition had been blamed for killing large numbers of civilians. Since Sept. 20, bombings in Sana have killed at least 28 people, including 11 members of one family. On Sunday, helicopters flying from Saudi Arabia killed at least 30 people in a village near the Yemen border, local residents and medical personnel told Reuters.
Bombings in Sana have killed at least 28 people since Sept. 20, including 11 members of one family. On Sunday, helicopters flying from Saudi Arabia killed at least 30 people in a village near Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported, citing local residents and medics. In a sign that the pace of the deaths was becoming harder to ignore, t Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, issued an unusually sharp public criticism of the Saudi-led coalition in an address to the General Assembly in New York on Monday.
In July, airstrikes on residential buildings at a steam plant in Mokha killed at least 65 civilians, according to Human Rights Watch, which investigated the strikes and called the bombings an “apparent war crime.” “All sides are showing disregard for human life — but most of the casualties are being caused by airstrikes,” he said, according to a transcript of his remarks. “I call for an end to the bombings, which are also destroying Yemeni cities, infrastructure and heritage,” he added.
Ahmed Altabozi, who said that a niece, Fatma Al-Khaishani, had been killed in the bombing of the wedding party, called the attack inexplicable. The wedding tents were in a remote stretch of the desert, far from any “military sites, soldiers or the presence of the state.” The majority of villagers had already left the area, fearing the airstrikes, he said.
Mr. Altabozi said that he heard the bombs from his house, which is less than a mile away, about 11 a.m. Two initial airstrikes hit one tent, and other bombs, minutes later, fell on a second tent where a group of women had taken shelter, causing most of the casualties, he said.
“I saw no body intact,” he added.
A local council official had said early Monday that the bridegroom, Mirsal Buseibis, had been killed but Mr. Altabozi said that Mr. Buseibis had survived. Thirteen of the groom’s relatives were among the dead, Mr. Altabozi said.