UN Demands Independent Inquiry Into Saudi-Led Strike On Yemen Hotel

Al-Sabah Al-Yemeni | follow up |

The UN human rights office called on Friday for an independent investigation into air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition on a Sana’a hotel that killed no fewer than 30 people as well as civilians in two other hits.

Aid groups said on Wednesday, the Saudi-led coalition airstrike on the outskirts of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, killed 39.

Witnesses said warplanes had bombed a hotel in the Arhab district, about 20km (13 miles) north of the city.

Other strikes reportedly targeted rebel positions to the south-east.

“We remind all parties to the conflict, including the Coalition, of their duty to ensure full respect for international humanitarian law,” UN human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell saud.

“It is not clear at this point what investigations there have been and what they have led to.”

In the week to Thursday, 58 civilians were killed in Yemen, “including 42 by the Saudi-led coalition,” with the rest attributed to unknown armed men and to the Popular Committees affiliated with the Houthi rebels, she said.

In a related development, rescuers said an air strike on Yemen’s capital Sanaa killed 12 people including six children on Friday.

The attack on the Faj Attan area on the outskirts of the city also severely damaged at least two buildings, reducing much of them to rubble, they said.

Residents and rescuers dug through debris to retrieve the bloodied, dust-covered bodies of several children, who appeared aged under 10 years old.

People at the scene told Reuters the warplanes were believed to be from a Saudi-led Arab coalition waging a two-and-half-year-old campaign against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement for control of the country in a war which has killed at least 10,000 people.

The Houthis and their ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, control much of the north of the country, including Sanaa.

Yemen’s internationally-recognized government is backed by the Saudi-led military alliance and is based in the south.