23 April YEMEN wedding airstrike kills 33 injures dozens

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Saudi attack on Yemen wedding kills up to 33, wounds dozens
Officials said ambulances were initially unable to reach the site for fear of more attacks as the jets continued to circle overhead
Associated PressAssociated Press
UPDATED : Monday, 23 Apr 2018, 11:20PM
http://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/2142967/saudi-attac k-yemen-wedding-kills-least-20-wounds-dozens

An air strike by the Saudi-led coalition hit a wedding party in northern Yemen, killing between 22 and 33 people and wounded up to 55, health officials said on Monday, as harrowing images emerged on social media of the bombing the previous day.

Khaled al-Nadhri, the top health official in the northern province of Hajja, said most of the dead were women and children who were gathered in one of the tents set up for the wedding party in the district of Bani Qayis. He says the bride was also killed.

Boys, injured in the attack, lie on beds at a hospital in Hajja. Photo: Reuters

Hospital chief Mohammed al-Sawmali said the groom and up to 45 of the wounded were taken to the local al-Jomhouri hospital.

Saudis say ‘bad intelligence’ led to attack on Yemen funeral that killed more than 140

Footage from the scene of the attack shows scattered body parts and a young boy in a green shirt hugging a man’s lifeless body, screaming and crying.

Health ministry spokesman Abdel-Hakim al-Kahlan said ambulances were initially unable to reach the site of the bombing for fear of subsequent air strikes as the jets continued to fly overhead after the initial strike.

The Saudi-led coalition has been waging a war on Yemen’s Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who control much of the north, and the capital, Sanaa.

A boy injured at the wedding lies on a stretcher at the hospital in Hajja. Photo: Reuters

Over the past three years, more than 10,000 civilians have been killed and tens of thousands wounded while over 3 million people have been displaced because of the fighting.

UN officials and rights groups accused the coalition of committing war crimes and of being responsible for most of the killings. Air strikes have hit weddings, busy markets, hospitals, and schools.

Saudi-led air strike kills scores of people in Yemen

The Saudis blame the Houthi rebels, claiming they are using civilians as human shields and hiding among the civilian population.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

Another boy injured by the attack on the wedding. Photo: Reuters

The US and European countries have also been criticised and accused of complicity in Saudi attacks in Yemen because of their support for the alliance and supplying it with billions of dollars worth of weapons.

Hundreds of thousands of Houthi rebel supporters flooded the streets of Yemen’s capital on Monday to mark three years of war, hours after Riyadh said it had intercepted seven missiles fired from rebel territory.

A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen on March 26, 2015 to try to restore the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the Iran-backed Shiite Houthis and their allies took over large parts of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

After the missile attacks that resulted in the first reported death in the Saudi capital, Sanaa’s Sabaeen Square on Monday was a sea of Yemeni flags as rebel authorities ordered all schools and government offices shut for the anniversary.

Houthi supporters carried portraits of rebel chief Abdulmalik al-Houthi and speakers blasted out a fiery speech by Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon’s powerful Shiite movement allied with the insurgents, praising the “steadfastness” of the Yemeni people.

War songs, poems and speeches condemning the United States, the main arms supplier for the Saudi-led coalition, echoed across the square.

No one can speak on behalf of the Yemeni people. People taking to the streets today is the real voice
IBTISAM AL-MUTAWAKEL, HOUTHI LEADER
On a stage, male dancers in traditional clothing with rifles slung over their shoulders performed for the crowd.

“No one can speak on behalf of the Yemeni people. People taking to the streets today is the real voice,” said Ibtisam al-Mutawakel, head of a Houthi cultural committee.


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About 10,000 Yemenis have been killed and 53,000 wounded since the start of the coalition intervention in Yemen, which triggered what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The rebels remain in control of the capital, northern Yemen and the country’s largest port.

Saudi authorities announced Sunday night they had intercepted seven missiles fired from Yemeni territory, including one that caused the death of an Egyptian labourer in Riyadh, killed by falling shrapnel.

The Houthis said on their Al-Masirah television that Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport was among the targets.

“This aggressive and hostile action … proves that the Iranian regime continues to support the armed group with military capabilities,” coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said.

A Houthi supporter holds up a poster flag of the Houthi leader Abdulmalik Badruddin al-Houthi. Photo: Reuters

Abdul-Moteleb Ahmed, 38, died instantly in his bed when what appeared to be burning shrapnel struck his ramshackle room in Riyadh’s Um al-Hammam district, leaving a gaping hole in the roof, according to witnesses interviewed at the site.

Three other Egyptian labourers in the same room were wounded and hospitalised, they said.

“He was the father of two young children and the sole breadwinner for his family,” another roommate said, standing amid smashed furniture and scattered piles of debris.

It is the Americans who are directing this aggression and participating directly on a number of fronts
SALEH AL-SAMMAD, REBEL LEADER
Experts have cast doubt on the near-perfect interception rate reported by Saudi Arabia, which says it relies on a US-made Patriot missile defence system.

Britain on Monday urged Iran to “stop sending in weapons which prolong the conflict”, while the US State Department said Washington would support the Saudis’ “right to defence their borders against these threats”.

After multiple rounds of failed UN-brokered peace talks, the world body’s special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, threw in the towel last month.

Rebel leaders have sought to highlight the role of the United States in the Saudi-led intervention.

At Monday’s rally, Saleh al-Sammad, head of the rebels’ Supreme Political Council, said the rebels were “ready to reach an understanding” to end the intervention and the coalition’s blockade of Yemen.

“It is the Americans who are directing this aggression and participating directly on a number of fronts,” Sammad told the rally.

The Hadi government, for its part, said on Monday that the overnight attacks on Saudi Arabia amounted to “an open rejection of peace”.

The US Senate last week rejected a bipartisan bid to end American involvement in Yemen’s war, voting down a rare effort to overrule presidential military authorisation.

The US has provided weapons, intelligence and aerial refuelling to the Saudi-led coalition.

Washington formally approved defence contracts worth more than US$1 billion with Riyadh last Thursday during a high-profile visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Agence France-Presse
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Yemen
A Patriot anti-missile missile streaks towards a target over Riyadh on Sunday, as fragments from another missile rain down in this video posted by the Al Arabiya network on Twitter. Photo: Twitter / Al Arabiya MIDDLE EAST
Saudis destroy barrage of ballistic missiles fired by Yemen rebels, lighting up sky over Riyadh
All seven missiles were apparently intercepted, but one person in Riyadh was reportedly killed by falling fragments
Associated PressAssociated Press
UPDATED : Monday, 26 Mar 2018, 10:39PM

2
Yemen’s Shiite rebels fired a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting Saudi Arabia late Sunday on the third anniversary of a kingdom-led war in Yemen, with fragments of one missile over Riyadh killing one person and wounding two.

The casualties were the first in Saudi Arabia’s capital since the Saudi-led war in Yemen began in March 2015, though previous rockets fired by the Yemeni rebels have caused deaths in other parts of the kingdom.

The rebels known as Houthis said they launched a missile attack targeting Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport and other sites, again showing their ability to strike deep into the neighbouring kingdom amid the stalemated war in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country.


The barrage likely will spark new criticism of Iran’s role in the conflict as well, as the Houthis identified some of the missiles fired as a type that the United Nations and the West say comes from Tehran.

The Saudi military said it intercepted seven ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis at the kingdom, three of them targeting Riyadh, two targeting Jazan and one apiece targeting Najran and Khamis Mushait.

The Saudi-owned satellite news channel Al Arabiya aired footage that it said showed Patriot missile batteries firing at the incoming Houthi missiles, lighting up the night sky. Online videos showed what appeared to be a missile fuselage lying on a street in Riyadh.

One Egyptian national was killed and two other Egyptians suffered wounds when a fragment of a missile over Riyadh fell on a residential neighbourhood, the state-run Saudi Press Agency said.


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A file photo shows tribesmen inspect fragments of a Houthi ballistic missile after it was intercepted by the Saudi-led coalition's air defence forces in Marib, Yemen, on February 23. A new Houthi barrage on Sunday reportedly killed one person in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, Photo: Reuters
Houthi ballistic missiles have increased in range over time, with the first one targeting Riyadh fired on May 19, 2017, according to the United Nations. A November 4 launch previously targeted King Khalid International Airport, showing the missiles had a range of over 1,000km.

The November 4 attack saw the Saudi-led coalition escalate its attacks. It wasn’t immediately clear how the coalition would react to Sunday’s attack, though the barrage marks some 90 Houthi ballistic missile launches targeting Saudi Arabia.

Al Masirah, a Houthi-run satellite news channel, identified some of the missiles fired as the Burkan, or Volcano, missile. The United Nations, Western countries and the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen all say the Burkan mirrors characteristics of an Iranian Qiam ballistic missile. They say that suggests Tehran either shared the technology or smuggled disassembled missiles to the Houthis who then rebuilt them.

Iran long has denied supplying arms to the Houthis, though a growing body of evidence contradicts their claim.

Meanwhile, the US provides logistical support and weaponry to the Saudi-led coalition, which has been criticised for its air strikes on Yemen killing civilians, as well as a blockade of Yemeni ports that has brought the country to the edge of famine.

Over 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which began after the Houthis and their allies seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in September 2014 and began a march south.

[outsider]

'This boy clinging to dead body won't become face of Yemen war for millions in the West (GRAPHIC)':
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/424942-boy-face-yemen-war/?


'A horrible image taken after the Saudi-led bombing of a wedding party in Yemen last Sunday featured a young boy clinging to a dead man’s body, refusing to leave. But I bet he won’t be the face of the war in the mainstream media.'

And guess what, this image was NOT set up by the 'White Helmets'.
Which raises a question: where the f*ck is Mesurier and his crew? Not much sign of them in Gaza, either.

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Yemen: 'At least 20 killed including bride' after airstrike by Saudi-led coalition hits wedding party
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/yemen-airstrike-w edding-party-killed-injured-bani-qayis-saudi-coalition-latest-updates- a8317826.html

Groom and 45 other wounded people are in hospital

Jon Sharman, Ghaida Ghantous, Ahmed al-Haj Tuesday 24 April 2018

Alfie Evans is able to breathe on his own. This is what that signifies
At least 20 people including the bride were killed when an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition hit a wedding party in northern Yemen, health officials have said.

The dead were mostly women and children gathered in a tent set up for the wedding in the Bani Qayis district, according to Khaled al-Nadhri, the leading health official in the north-western Hajjah province.

Hospital chief Mohammed al-Sawmali said the groom and 45 other wounded people were brought to the local al-Jomhouri hospital.

Thirty of those injured were reported to be children, with some in critical condition having suffered severed limbs and shrapnel wounds.


READ MORE
Fire destroys Yemen warehouses filled with aid supplies
Footage that emerged from the scene of the airstrike showed scattered body parts and a young boy in a green shirt hugging a man’s lifeless body, screaming and crying.

Health ministry spokesman Abdel-Hakim al-Kahlan said ambulances were initially unable to reach the site of the bombing for fear of subsequent airstrikes as the jets continued to fly overhead after the initial strike on Sunday.

“We take this report very seriously and it will be fully investigated as all reports of this nature are,” a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition said.

Al-Masirah, the TV station of the armed Houthi movement which controls the area and much of northern Yemen, claimed on its Twitter account that 33 people had been killed and 55 wounded.

More than 10,000 civilians have been killed and tens of thousands wounded in three years of war in Yemen.

The civil war broke out after the government of Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi was pushed out of the capital, Sana’a, by the Houthis in March 2015. It led to a military intervention by the Saudis and others.

Some 22 milllion people, or 80 per cent of the population, are in need of humanitarian aid, the UN has said.

UN officials have accused the Saudi Arabia-led coalition of war crimes and of being responsible for most of the killings. Air strikes have hit weddings, busy markets, hospitals, and schools.

The situation in Yemen

For its part, the coalition has blamed Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and said they have used civilians as human shields.

Earlier this month the UK approved a £170m aid package for several million Yemenis at risk of starvation.

In November last year Theresa May’s government was criticised for allowing arms deals with Saudi Arabia worth billions of pounds.