During 2017, Mwatana documented as many as 89 attacks, which the Saudi-Emirati-led Coalition carried out against civilians and civilian objects in 10 Yemeni governorates. These attacks resulted in killing at least 357 civilians, including 161 children and 45 women, and wounding 294 others, including 101 children and 56 women. The Coalition carried out these attacks against houses, markets, schools and farms, as well as fishermen.

Two days before the second anniversary of the start of military operations of the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Yemen, Mwatana for Human Rights released a statement on March 24, 2017, condemning the coalition attacks documented by the organization that killed and injured hundreds of civilians. Mwatana also indicated in its statement that it has also documented the Coalition’s use of Italian-made weapons, in addition to other attacks, in which U.S. and UK-made weapons were used. The statement called on the countries providing support to the Coalition, the U.S. and UK in particular, to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia, because they might be used against civilians and civilian objects[1].

The Legal Framework

International Humanitarian Law is a set of rules and principles primarily aiming at protecting those who do not take part in hostilities, namely, civilians. It also sets standards of human conduct and restricts the means and methods of warfare. The fundamental objective of this law is to limit, to the maximum extent possible, human suffering during armed conflicts.

One of the basic rules of IHL is that the Parties to a conflict must at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants in order to spare the civilian population and civilian property. Attacks may be made solely against military objectives, subject to military necessity. The Parties to a conflict must also distinguish between civilian objects and military objectives.

A civilian object is any object (buildings, places, properties, etc.) that is not a legitimate military objective. Military targets are all objectives that by their ‘nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralisation, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage. Attacks against the civilian population or objects are considered as war crimes.

Bombing civilian areas that are free from military objectives, is considered as a direct attack, and falls under the category of war crimes. The Parties to a conflict must, to the maximum extent feasible, take precautions to protect the civilian population and civilian objects against the effect of an attack.

Incidents:

• At about 02:30 pm on Wednesday February 1, 2017, the Arab Coalition targeted a house in the village of Sana, located in Haddah area in Sana’a. The attack resulted in killing an entire family of five members including two children. Only one girl child survived (Anood, eight years old) because she was outside the house at the time of the attack.

Eyewitness, Abbas Abdulah Hussien Al-Mutta’a (45 years old) said: “I rushed to the location where the bomb struck, with a number of other rescuers. We found the mother under the debris; she was still alive then, and was taken to the hospital. Later, I saw a girl child…” Al-Mutta’a cut his statement short for a few seconds; he was extremely emotional and his eyes were full of tears. He added: “I could not stay much longer; my heart could not bear any more of such scenes”.[2]

• At about 02:20 am on Friday August 25, 2017, the Arab Coalition targeted the Faj Attan area in the Capital city of Sana’a with four bombs. Two bombs fell on a Houthi-run military site, which was continuously targeted by airstrikes. The other two bombs hit a residential building, 200 meters away from the military site.

An Amnesty International arms expert analyzed remnants of a bomb and found that it bore clear markings that matched US-made components commonly used in laser-guided air-dropped bombs.[3]

Although the targeting of a military objectives is part of non-criminal military actions in the laws of war, the fact that laser-guided air-dropped bombs are used has the potential to accurately distinguish civilian objects from military objectives, rendering civilian casualties unlawful and not subject to the rules of inevitable collateral damage. In this case, this damage could have been avoided.

This airstrike killed at least 16 civilians, including seven children and three women, and injured 17 others, including eight children and six women. The residential building was leveled to ground, as if an earthquake had struck and destroyed it on the heads of its inhabitants. The lives of seven families completely changed because of the airstrike, while the rest of the survivors of the attack live in fear and displacement. Painful picture of Buthaina Al-Rimi (seven years old), who lost all members of her family was widely circulated in local and international media. In the picture, Buthaina is seen trying to open her right eye to see the remains of her world.

In an interview with Mwatana, Ali Mansour Sa’ad Al-Rimi (32 years old), Buthaina’s uncle, said: “I was talking over the phone with my brother, Mohammed (38 years old), and he asked me: “Where was this airstrike? I replied: Near your place! He replied: They terrified my children. The connection was suddenly lost. I tried calling him back but he did not pick up. I ran to my brother’s house from near YALLI Institute in Baghdad St., because I could not find a taxi at that late hour. I arrived at the area that was struck, to find a number of Ansar Allah gunmen surrounding the place and preventing people from entering into it. The whole place was completely shattered to the extent that I could not recognize my brother’s house. I asked them: Where is the house that was hit? They said, here. I walked toward the house and found that my brother and his entire family (his wife, his brother-in-law, and six of his children) were killed.”[4]

• On Tuesday October 17, 2017, at about 09:00 pm, the Arab Coalition targeted the family of Ahmed Nasir Jarullah (45 years old), to the west of Al-Murrah village, Barat Al-Anan district, Al-Jawf governorate. Six civilians of a single family, including three children were killed in the attack, while two other children were wounded. Mwatana for Human Rights visited the location of the incident and found out that it is located in a remote desert area with no military presence.

In an interview with Mwatana, Ahmed Saleh Thwabah (30 years old) who lives 120 meters away from the location of the incident and works as a shepherd, said: “Saudi warplanes targeted the tent of Ahmed Nasir Garullah’s family. Six people were killed in this attack: Ahmed Nasir Hadi Garullah (father), his wife, Rasmah Mohammed Naji (40 years old), his daughters, Hikmah (19 years old), Samra’a (17 years old), Shifa’a (5 years old) and the baby Hablah (one and a half years old). Misha’al (16 years old) sustained burn wounds all over his body and Ali (11 years old) also sustained burn wounds and a fracture in his left thigh.[5]

Thwabah added: “The first bomb directly hit the tent where the family lived. In about two minutes after the first bomb, the second bomb landed between the kitchen tent and the sheep barn, almost four meters away from the family tent. The third bomb, which was dropped five minutes later, almost 10 meters away from where the second bomb landed, nearly killed us, the rescuers, but thankfully no one was hurt. We could take the wounded to the hospital only after one hour and a half as warplanes were flying overhead. There is no reason for targeting the area; there are no military sites, nor is there even a checkpoint. This is a poor Bedouin family and they have lived here for five years. They have no connections with the Houthis at all. Their bodies were horribly torn into bits and pieces and we continued to collect their remains until the next morning”.[6]

In addition to the hardships and difficult conditions experienced by civilians as a result of the armed ground conflict, civilians in Taizz governorate also had a share of the Arab Coalition’s airstrikes.

• On Tuesday, December 26, 2017 at about 08:00 am, an Arab Coalition airstrike that targeted a popular market in Al-Haymah Al-Sufla village, Al-Taizziah district, Taizz governorate, resulted in killing 27 civilians, including six children and wounding eight others, including one child.

From the interviews it conducted, Mwatana for Human Rights learnt that a big number of the victims of this incident were khat sellers who had just arrived in the market.

In an interview with Mwatana for Human Rights, Abdullah Mohammed Mudhish (45 years old) whose brother and brother-in-law were killed in the incident, said: “Twelve hours earlier, (on Monday December 25, 2017) at 08:00 pm of the previous day, warplanes could be heard circulating overhead after the Maghrib prayers (about 06:00 pm) and dropped a bomb on the same popular market, but the market was empty at the time. A number of small shop owners in the market came from their villages to find out that the damages were minimal and that their goods were intact.”[7]

He added: “In the next day, at 08:00 am, I was in my house in the village of Wadi Areeq, about 500 meters to the north of the popular market. I heard the warplanes flying and then I heard the explosion which was very loud. I went out about an hour later, and arrived at the market while the victims were still on the street. Rescuers from our village could not take all the victims to the hospital because there were too many victims and their parts were scattered everywhere. It was truly gruesome and I could not bear it any more. The biggest tragedy was when people were trying to identify the victims and get shocked to find out that the victims were their loved ones. The same thing happened with me. Some villagers told me that my brother Sarhan Mohammed Mudhish (57 years old) was one of the victims. I went to look for his body, but the bodies of the victims filled the place. I walked through the bodies feeling nauseous at the sight of scattered body parts of the victims, their burnt and charred bodies on the Public Road in the market. I found my brother’s body face down, at a small distance from the charred and scattered bodies in the market. He sustained a hit in the back of his head and in the back of his right shoulder. I found the body of my brother-in-law, Qaed Ali Naji Al-Waqs (45 years old), next to my brother’s body, his guts were out. I could not have a single bite of food whenever I remembered that scene”.[8]

 

[1]Mwatana for Human Rights, Mwatana: The Saudi-led Coalition Has Been Targeting Civilians in Yemen for Two Years, March 24, 2017.

[2]Mwatana interviewed Abbas Abdulah Hussien Al-Mutta’a on February 2, 2017.

[3]Amnesty International, Yemen: US-made bomb kills and maims children in deadly strike on residential homes, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/09/yemen-us-made-bomb-kills-and-maims-children-in-deadly-strike-on-residential-homes/.

[4]Mwatana interviewed Ali Mansour Al-Rimi on August 25, 2017.

[5]Mwatana interviewed Ahmed Saleh Thwabah on October 21, 2017

[6]ibid.

[7] Mwatana interviewed Abdullah Mohammed Mudhish on December 27, 2017.

[8]ibid.