U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition accept responsibility for Yemen funeral massacre

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - A Saudi Arabia-led investigation into an airstrike last week on a Yemeni funeral has concluded that Saudi-led coalition jets “wrongly” bombed the ceremony, killing more than 100 people, after receiving faulty information and not following proper procedures.

In a statement Saturday, the Joint Incidents Assessment Team based in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, said that “a party affiliated” with the chief of staff of Yemen’s president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, “wrongly passed information that there was a gathering of” armed Houthi leaders in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on Oct. 8.

The party, the investigators said, “insisted that the location be targeted immediately as a legitimate military target.”

But the coalition’s air operations center ordered the attack “without obtaining approval from the Coalition command to support legitimacy and without following the Coalition command’s precautionary measures to ensure that the location is not a civilian one that may not be targeted,” the statement said. A coalition aircraft then “carried out the mission.”

“JIAT has found that because of noncompliance with Coalition rules of engagement and procedures, and the issuing of incorrect information a Coalition aircraft wrongly targeted the location, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries,” the statement said.

This is the first time the coalition acknowledges it was behind the bombing, after an initial denial.

There was no immediate response from the Houthi administration, which controls Sanaa and other large swaths of northern Yemen.

Last weekend’s attack on the Grand Hall, one of the most prominent venues in the Yemeni capital, was one of the deadliest single assaults of the 20-month war that has upended the Middle East’s poorest nation. At least three airstrikes hit crowds of mourners gathered inside the complex for a funeral for the father of a senior official in the Houthi administration.

The bombings killed senior officials and scores of civilians. Houthi administration officials said the number dead was about 104, while the United Nations placed the death toll at 140. Other media have reported the figure as 155. Hundreds more were wounded and remain in hospitals, many in critical condition.

Initially, the Saudi-led coalition denied that its warplanes carried out the airstrikes. But a day later it called the attack “regrettable and painful” and launched the investigation. The reversal came hours after the Obama administration expressed grave concern about the strikes and said it had launched a review of its “already significantly reduced support” to the Saudi-led coalition, declaring that United States support to the kingdom “is not a blank check.”

Officials said Thursday that the future of American military assistance to Saudi Arabia will hinge partly on whether the gulf kingdom embraces a U.S.-backed cease-fire with Houthis in Yemen. Along with arms, the United States provides the coalition with logistical support and mid-air refueling of its warplanes and has faced a backlash after the bombing.

The Obama administration has come under fire by human rights groups and lawmakers for its backing of Saudi Arabia’s air campaign, which has routinely targeted hospitals and other civilian areas.

Thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed by Saudi-led coalition, according to the U.N. Millions more are suffering from hunger, illness and displacement as a humanitarian disaster grips the nation.

Human rights groups have accused the Saudi-led coalition of gross violations, which Riyadh has denied. The Houthis have also been accused of such abuses as recruiting child soldiers and forced disappearances of its opponents.




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