Saudi coalition admits deadly Yemen airstrike, blames 'technical mistake'

The Saudi-led military coalition waging war in Yemen on Saturday admitted responsibility for an airstrike that killed 14 civilians a day earlier, describing it as a "technical mistake".

MENA

3 min read

The New Arab & agencies

26 August, 2017

Saudi airstrikes in Yemen over the past week have killed more than 42 civilians. [Getty]

The Saudi-led military coalition waging war in Yemen on Saturday admitted responsibility for an airstrike that killed 14 civilians a day earlier, describing it as a "technical mistake".

The UN says that Saudi airstrikes in Yemen over the past week have killed more than 42 civilians, with multiple children among the dead.

Witnesses and medics said an airstrike on Friday toppled several residential blocks in Sanaa in the latest wave of deadly attacks.

The coalition said a review of the strike by investigators found "that a technical mistake was behind the accident", the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said the coalition "regrets the collateral damage caused by this involuntary accident and offers its condolences to the families and relatives of the victims".

The coalition accused rebels of using civilians as "human shields" in the residential area south of the capital.

The International Committee of the Red Cross had condemned the raid as "outrageous", while Amnesty International's Middle East research director said Saudi Arabia "rained down bombs on civilians while they slept".

Sole survivor

Buthaina Muhammad Mansour, believed to be four or five, is the sole survivor of the deadly Saudi airstrike on Friday.

Her bruised eyes swollen shut, she was pulled out of the rubble and suffered a concussion and skull fractures.

Buthaina's parents, five siblings and uncle were all killed when Saudi bombs struck her family's apartment building.

The young girl, still disorientated from her traumatic experience, has been calling out from her hospital bed for her uncle Mounir, who was killed in the airstrike.

Saleh Muhammad Saad, another uncle of Buthaina, said Mounir rushed to the family home when the young girl's father told him Saudi planes were bombing the neighbourhood, but he never returned.

When Saleh arrived, the building was a ruin of concrete rubble, but hearing survivors groan underneath the debris he battled to free them.

"I could hear the shouts of one of their neighbours from under the rubble, and tried to remove the rubble from on top of (Buthaina's father) and his wife, but I couldn't. They died," he told Reuters.

"We lifted the rubble and saw first her brother Ammar, who was three, and her four sisters, all of them dead. I paused a little and just screamed out from the pain. But I pulled myself together, got back there and then heard Buthaina calling."

Her survival has given him some solace, even as he mourned the deaths of the rest of his family.

"Her sister Raghad always used to come up and hug me and kiss me when I visited. I used to say to her, 'Come on, that's enough.' And she would say 'Oh no it isn't!' and just keep hugging and kissing."

UN figures suggest more than 10,000 people have been killed and thousands more wounded since Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened on behalf of the internationally recognised government.

International rights groups have accused the coalition of bombing civilian areas including public gatherings, markets, hospitals and residential areas across Yemen since the aerial campaign against Houthi rebels began in 2015.