Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Scores killed in airstrike on Yemen funeral hall
Rebels decry attack as latest act of ‘genocide’
SANAA, Yemen — An airstrike on Saturday hit a funeral hall packed with thousands of mourners in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and health officials said that more than 140 people were killed and more than 525 wounded, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Yemen said.
Nasser al-Argaly, the Health Ministry’s undersecretary, told a news conference earlier that the Saudi-led coalition was responsible for the airstrike, which one rescuer said turned the site into a “lake of blood.” At the time, al-Argaly said at least 82 people were killed and 534 wounded, but cautioned that the casualty figures were not final.
Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, said in a statement the humanitarian community in the country is “shocked and outraged” by the airstrikes.
He condemned the “horrific attack” and reminded all parties to the conflict “that under international humanitarian law, they are obliged to protect civilians and civilian infrastructures.”
The incident has prompted the U.S. to initiate an immediate review of its already reduced support for the Saudi-led coalition, White House national security council representative Ned Price said.
Yemeni security and medical officials said the dead and wounded include military and security officials from the ranks of the Shiite Houthi rebels fighting the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the Houthi’s allies, loyalists of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Among those killed was Maj-Gen. Abdul-Qader Hilal, head of the capital’s local council, according to the officials.
Saturday’s funeral was held for Sheikh Ali al-Rawishan, father of Galal al-Rawishan, the interior minister in the rebel-led government. Galal Al-Rishwan was seriously wounded in the attack.
In the aftermath of the strike, hundreds of body parts were found strewn in and outside the hall. Rescuers collected them in sacks. The strike left the building little more than a shell, with most of its walls and roof gone. Cars parked outside 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 Sanaa, denounced the airstrike as the latest 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.
The United States has been backing the Saudi-led coalition, but Price said the U.S. is “deeply disturbed” by the reports on the funeral hall airstrike which “if confirmed, would continue the troubling series of attacks striking Yemeni civilians.”
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.