Saudi-led attack kills 140 at Yemen funeral

AN air strike by the Saudi-led coalition yesterday targeted a funeral hall packed with mourners in Sana’a, the Yemen capital, killing at least 140 people and turning the site into a “lake of blood”, according to a health ministry official.

Nasser al-Argaly said the number of dead could well rise after an attack that also left 534 wounded could well rise.

Among the casualties were military and security officials from the ranks of the Shiite Houthi rebels fighting the internationally recognised government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi as well as their allies. Maj-Gen AbdulQader Hilal, head of the capital’s local council, was one of the dead, said officials.

The funeral was held for Sheikh Ali al-Rawishan, father of Galal al-Rawishan, the interior minister in the rebelled government. Galal al-Rishwan was seriously wounded in the attack.

The strike left the building little more than a shell while nearby cars were mangled by the blast.

“The place has been turned into a lake of blood,” said one rescuer, Murad Tawfiq.

Mohammed Abdul-Salam, the Houthis’ spokesman in Sana’a, angrily denounced the air strike as an act of “genocide” by the Saudi-led coalition.

“The silence of the United Nations and the international community is the munition of the murderers,” he said. “Those murderers will not escape divine justice.”

The Saudi-led coalition backs Hadi’s government which, together with its own allies, is fighting the Houthis and Saleh loyalists in a civil war that broke out in 2014.

Roughly 3,800 civilians have been killed since the Saudi-led air campaign that began in March last year.