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Incident on 18 September 2015 [+] Print this page

Location: Marib Street, At Tahrir District, Amanat Al Asimah [+]

Country: Yemen [+]

Violation types: Apparently Unlawful Airstrike [+]

Location


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This incident took place in Marib Street, At Tahrir District, Amanat Al Asimah, Yemen [+]

Description


According to Human Rights Watch: "The Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting in Yemen carried out at least six apparently unlawful airstrikes in residential areas of the capital, Sanaa, in September and October 2015, killing 60 civilians. Coalition members and the United States, as a party to the conflict, are required under the laws of war to investigate such attacks, but they have not. Human Rights Watch found no evidence of any military target in an airstrike on the Old City and on al-Asbahi neighborhood in September. Airstrikes that caused civilian casualties on homes on Marib Street and in the neighborhoods of Hadda, al-Hassaba, and Thabwa hit 200 meters or more from possible military objectives. These attacks failed to distinguish civilians from military objectives or caused disproportionate civilian loss. Houthi forces in at least two of the attacks put civilians at unnecessary risk by deploying in densely populated neighborhoods.... On September 18, at about 10:30 p.m., coalition aircraft struck a brick house next to an unused iron lathe workshop. The airstrike damaged the house and destroyed the workshop, an aluminum-sheet roof over a metal frame. Five civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed, and another eight were seriously wounded. Earlier that evening, heavy strikes began on the Interior Ministry compound, a kilometer away. Ibrahim Ateeq al-Jihm and his brother Fayez left their house and, from a street corner in their neighborhood, watched as another strike hit a market, Souq Bathar, at a roundabout about a kilometer away. Al-Jihm told Human Rights Watch: [M]y brother shouted, “Let’s go home now! It’s not safe to stay here.” As we were walking home, I suddenly found myself flying in the air and then thrown to the ground. I was covered with stones and dust. There was smoke everywhere and I was covered in blood. I was having difficulty breathing as if someone was squeezing my chest tightly. I finally stood up and looked around me, trying to find my brother – he was lying next to me. His brother was not hurt, but al-Jihm saw three other people lying on the ground nearby, covered in rubble. One, Walid Fadel Muhammad Thabet, was not moving. The other two – one of whom works in the iron workshop and the other at an aluminum workshop – were moaning and convulsing. The two brothers ran home to check on their family and found the cousin of one of the renters in the building badly wounded. They took him to the hospital. Three witnesses said that this was the first airstrike in the area. Six days later, on September 24, coalition aircraft began bombing the Military Police headquarters, 350 meters from where the first strike hit. Within four days the coalition had carried out at least two dozen strikes on the headquarters." [+]

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
21 December 2015 Human Rights Watch Yemen: Coalition Bombs Homes in Capital 21 November 2019