(Yemen) US must investigate ‘horribly wrong’ Saudi-led strikes, HRW says

http://www.france24.com/en/20150630-us-must-investigate-horribly-wrong-yemen-strikes-hrw-saudis



Othman Market in Saada, Yemen before (March 29, 2015) and after (May 18, 2015) it was destroyed in airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition.

US must investigate ‘horribly wrong’ Saudi-led strikes, HRW says
Text by Sophie PILGRIM , UN correspondent
Latest update : 2015-07-01

Human Rights Watch released findings on Tuesday detailing the devastating consequences of what they believe were unlawful airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, and urged US authorities to investigate strikes that “had gone horribly wrong”.

Walid al-Ibbi is one of the few people in his family who survived when his home in northern Yemen was bombed repeatedly on May 5. He lost his wife, his four daughters and 22 other family members. Earlier that day, his eldest daughter had received a marriage proposal, he told Human Rights Watch (HRW) researcher Belkis Wille, who travelled to al-Ibbi’s hometown to report on the destruction. “I didn’t even have time to celebrate with her,” he said. “I cannot believe everyone I love is gone.”

Al-Ibbi is one of scores of people who lost loved ones in the northern town on Saada, an historic trading town 75 kilometres from the border with Saudi Arabia, when a Saudi-led coalition began bombing Yemen in late March in response to an Iranian-backed uprising by Shiite Houthi rebels.

As a Houthi stronghold, the Saudis designated all of Saada, which normally has a population of 50,000, as a military target. The coalition has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on the city, destroying all of its markets, a petrol station, a school and numerous residential buildings. In all, more than 200 locations were targeted, HRW found. At least 35 of the 59 people killed were children. Fourteen were women.