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Incident on 30 June 2015 [+] Print this page

Location: home of Fahmi Qa’id al-Najdan, Al Qahirah District, Ta'izz Governorate [+]

Country: Yemen [+]

Violation types: Violation of International Law [+]

Location


This incident took place in home of Fahmi Qa’id al-Najdan, Al Qahirah District, Ta'izz Governorate, Yemen [+]

Description


According to Amnesty International: "VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIOAL LAW: HUNDREDS OF CIVILIANS KILLED IN COALITION AIRSTRIKES [...] Since 25 March 2015, thousands of airstrikes by Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians all over Yemen. The eight strikes investigated by Amnesty International for this briefing killed at least 141 civilians and injured 101, most of them children and women, in southern region of Yemen. While the scope of this briefing is limited to the specific geographic area of southern Yemen, Amnesty International has investigated civilian casualties resulting from unlawful coalition airstrikes in other parts of the country, notably in and around the capital, Sana’a, and the northern city of Sa’da, the most frequent target of such strikes. Coalition strikes which killed and injured civilians and destroyed civilian property and infrastructure investigated by Amnesty International have been found to be frequently disproportionate or indiscriminate. In some instances Amnesty International found that strikes appeared to have apparently directly targeted civilians or civilian objects. International humanitarian law prohibits deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects, and attacks which do not discriminate between civilians/civilian objects and combatants/military objectives, or which cause disproportionate harm to civilians/civilian objects in relation to the anticipated military advantage which may be gained by such attack. Such attacks constitute war crimes. The pattern of attacks, which since the beginning of the coalition air bombardment campaign on 25 March 2015 have continued to cause civilian casualties, and the lack of investigations to date into such incidents raise serious concerns about an apparent disregard for civilian life and for fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, not only by those planning and executing the strikes but also by the exiled Yemeni government, at whose behest Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces are acting. [...] In the city of Ta’iz, on 30 June, coalition forces launched two airstrikes against the home of Fahmi Qa’id al-Najdan, a 39-year property dealer, killing him, his wife Khulud, 35, and their two daughters Rinad and Malak, aged two and five. The couple’s two young boys survived because they had gone to play at a relatives’ house nearby. Fahmi’s brother told Amnesty International;“The house was bombed twice, about 20 minutes apart, at about 1 -1.15pm. The house was destroyed, leaving no chance of survival for anyone in the house. Some people say that the Saudis said in the media that there was an arms cache in the house and others say that 30 Huthis were killed in the house. None of this is true. They killed a father, a mother and their two little girls. Anyone who wants can dig in the ruins of the house to check if there are weapons or Huthis. Only God knows why they bombed this home. May God do justice”. The house, a large and solid structure, collapsed onto itself. It is not possible to fully assess what lies under the debris, but no evidence is visible that the house contained a weapon store or that combatants had been at the house. There were also no remains of weapons in the rubble, no signs of secondary explosions, no information that bodies were recovered other than the four family members, putting into question the justification and legality of the strike.” [+]

Perpetrator units

Name Other Names Classification
Operation Restoring Hope [+] Arab Coalition
Arab Coalition Forces
Arab Coalition to restore legitimacy in Yemen
Gulf Arab coalition
Hope Restoration Operation
Joint Forces
Operation Renewal of Hope
Operation Storm of Resolve
Saudi-led Arab Coalition
Saudi-led Coalition
coalition forces
operations Renewal of Hope
Air Force [+]
Army [+]
Joint Operation [+]
Military [+]
Navy [+]

Sources

List of all sources used to evidence the data in this record Click the "+" symbol next to every data point in the record to see the sources used for that data point.

Publication Date Publisher Publication Title Access Date Archive Link
18 August 2015 Amnesty International Nowhere safe for civilians': Airstrikes and ground attacks in Yemen (Index MDE 31/2291/2015) 19 January 2021