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Incident on 23 September 2015 [+] Print this page

Location: Radfan Ceramics Factory, Bani Mattar District, Sana'a Governorate [+]

Country: Yemen [+]

Violation types: Unlawful Airstrike [+]

Location


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This incident took place in Radfan Ceramics Factory, Bani Mattar District, Sana'a Governorate, Yemen [+]

Description


According to Human Rights Watch: "Coalition aircraft used a British-made cruise missile to destroy a Yemeni ceramics factory between 11 and 11:30 a.m. on September 23, 2015. The strike killed a 28-year-old man who worked as a guard at a makeshift detention facility run by Ansar Allah, the political wing of the Houthis. The site had originally been a government building known as the Productive Families Centre, approximately 140 meters from the factory compound. No strikes hit the detention facility, which would be a valid military target if used for military purposes. The attack also injured Ali Ahmad al-Faqih, a 55-year-old man, and Elham Hussein Hussein Taher, a 14-year-old girl both of whom lived near the factory. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that no fighters or military vehicles were in or near the factory at the time of the attack. The Radfan ceramics factory employed about 330 workers, and had stopped production prior to the attack due to security fears for the workers and a shortage of fuel to operate the machinery. Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International examined the weapon remnants at the September 23 strike site and identified the munition used as a PGM-500 “Hakim” airlaunched cruise missile, supplied in the mid-1990s and manufactured by the UK firm Marconi Dynamics. The attack on the factory in the Sanaa governorate was in apparent violation of the laws of war, since it appeared to be producing only civilian goods." [+]

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
11 July 2016 Human Rights Watch Bombing Businesses: Saudi Coalition Airstrikes on Yemen’s Civilian Economic Structures 22 November 2019