Civilian Casualties in Yemen Airstrikes

Faj Attan, south of Yemen's capital, Sana'a.

The mention of this poor neighborhood recalls similar memories for Yemenis,

as Faj Attan has long been a target of Arab Coalition airstrikes.

At dawn, while people were asleep, Coalition fighter jets raided

the neighborhood, targeting two residential buildings and razing them to the ground.

Eyewitnesses say they housed six families.

Dozens of dead and wounded were pulled out, one after another, from beneath the rubble.

Most of the victims were women and children, some under the age of ten.

As Yemenis searched through the rubble for missing people

buried beneath the debris, the United Nations Commission

on Human Rights was counting the victims of Arab Coalition airstrikes in

Yemen between the seventeenth and twenty-fourth of

this August. UN figures confirm

that more than 40 civilians were killed in one week by

Arab Coalition fighter jets bombing various areas of

Yemen under Houthi control. Yet none of these

airstrikes targeted a military site. They stopped

The Human Rights Commission, specifically over the killing of more than

thirty Yemenis two days ago in an airstrike on a

hotel in Arhab District, Sana'a, and called on the coalition

to conduct an independent investigation into the past days' raids that

ensures full respect for international humanitarian law.

UN reports monitor an alarming intensity of coalition

airstrikes in Yemen, as the number of raids carried out

by coalition warplanes during the first half of the current

year has exceeded the total recorded throughout last year.

The continued attacks by the Arab coalition disregard the UN's warning

that it is considering recommending its inclusion on the

blacklist of states and groups that violate

children's rights in conflicts and wars. Among the coalition members,

UN reports specifically point to Saudi Arabia and the UAE

as the leaders of military operations in

Yemen. UAE actions on the ground, for example, reveal an

agenda Abu Dhabi has sought to entrench in service of its own goals,

Ignoring the chaos caused by the UAE's support for certain

political parties, some of which oppose the legitimate government's policies.

And Abu Dhabi's funding of armed militias

that threaten President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi's authority.

In a report by its panel of experts, the UN expressed

concern over what it described as states deliberately hiding behind the veil

of the Arab coalition to evade accountability for violations

committed during military operations in Yemen, especially

airstrikes, which cause the largest number of

casualties.