YEMEN: Video Shows Moment Double Tap Airstrike Hit Funeral Gathering in Sanaa October 080:43
Saudi-led fighter jets struck an event hall in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Saturday, October 8, as hundreds of people gathered at a wake for the father of the administration?s interior minister, Jalal al-Roweishan. The coalition denied any involvement in the attack, which left more than 140 people dead and hundreds injured, according to local health officials cited by the United Nations. The Ministry of Health was cited in Houthi state-run media declaring that there were at least 450 people who were killed and wounded, while the ICRC in Yemen said that it was sending at least 300 body bags and medical supplies to the blast site. Unconfirmed eyewitness reports said that senior Houthi officials, including the mayor of Sanaa, may have been inside the funeral hall at the time of the airstrikes. Credit: Facebook/Al-Masirah
A Yemeni man who was wounded in an air strike on a funeral in Sanaa. Picture: AFP/Mohammed Huwais
TWO missiles fired from rebel-held territory in Yemen have narrowly missed an American destroyer in the Red Sea, the US Navy said, the second such launch targeting ships in the crucial international waterway in recent days.
The missile launches on Sunday came as a ballistic missile fired from Yemen apparently targeted a Saudi air base near the Muslim holy city of Mecca, the deepest strike yet into the kingdom by Shiite rebels and their allies.
Yemen’s Shiite rebels known as Houthis and their allies offered no reason for the launches, though they came after a Saudi-led air strike targeting a funeral in Yemen’s capital killed over 140 people and wounded 525 on Saturday.
Two missiles fired from rebel-held territory in Yemen fell short of a US warship patrolling the Red Sea off the coast of the war-torn country, the US navy said. Picture: AFP/Navy Visual News Service/HandoutSource:AFP
In a statement, the Navy said no American sailors were injured and no damage was done to the USS Mason, an Arleigh Burke class of guided missile destroyer whose home port is Norfolk, Virginia.
Lt. Ian McConnaughey, a spokesman for US Navy Forces Central Command, said that it’s unclear if the USS Mason was specifically targeted, though the missiles were fired in its direction over an hour’s time period, starting at around 7pm local time.
An American defence official said the USS Mason used on-board defensive measures after the first missile was fired, but it wasn’t clear if that caused the missile to splash harmlessly into the sea.
Dozens of people have been killed in a Saudi-led air strike on a funeral in Sanaa, Yemen. Picture: AP Photo/Osamah AbdulrhmanSource:AP
The destroyer at the time of the missile fire was north of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which serves as a gateway for oil tankers headed to Europe through the Suez Canal, the official said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the incident that haven’t been made public.
However, the Houthi-controlled SABA news agency of Yemen quoted an anonymous army official denying its forces fired on the USS Mason, without elaborating.
Last week, an Emirati-leased Swift boat came under rocket fire near the same area and sustained serious damage. The United Arab Emirates described the vessel as carrying humanitarian aid and having a crew of civilians, while the Houthis called the boat a warship.
Rebels in control of Yemen's capital accused the Saudi-led coalition fighting them of killing and wounding dozens of people in air strikes on Sanaa. Picture: AFP/Mohammed HuwaisSource:AFP
US Navy officials declined to immediately discuss what kind of rockets were used in the USS Mason incident.
Analysts with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy suggested in a report that the Houthis may have targeted the Emirati ship with an Iranian anti-shipping cruise missile, based on purported video of the attack.
Shiite power Iran has supported the Houthis, but denied supplying them with weapons. Any Iranian involvement could stoke tension between the Islamic Republic and the US, which already have had a series of tense naval encounters since the nuclear deal with world powers.
Meanwhile, Saudi state television aired a brief clip of what appeared to be a projectile that was said to have landed in Taif in the ballistic missile attack. The video shows the flash of an explosion, followed by images of emergency vehicles. Taif is home to Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd Air Base, which hosts US military personnel training the kingdom’s armed forces.
The Saudi military said the missile fired late on Saturday night was intercepted and caused no damage. The US military’s Central Command, which oversees troops in the Middle East, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Al-Masirah, a satellite news channel run by Yemen’s Shiite rebels known as the Houthis, identified the missile as a local variant of a Soviet-era Scud missile. It said the Volcano-1 missile targeted the air base.
Saudi-led coalition planes hit a building in Sanaa where people had gathered to mourn the death of an official. Picture: AFP/Mohammed HuwaisSource:AFP
The Houthis have fired a series of ballistic missiles in Saudi Arabia since a kingdom-led coalition of Arab countries has launched an offensive against them in Yemen in March 2015. Most of those ballistic missiles have hit areas far closer to Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen, like an attack on Friday night that targeted the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait.
In the Taif attack, however, the missile struck a target more than 520 kilometres from the border. Taif also is just outside of Mecca, which is home to the cube-shaped Kaaba that all of the world’s Muslims pray toward.
The Saudi military also said it earlier intercepted another ballistic missile fired on Sunday on the Yemeni city of Marib.
The Houthis gave no reason for their targeting of Taif, but it comes after a Saudi-led air strike Saturday targeting a funeral in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.
On Sunday, thousands marched through the streets of Sanaa to protest the strike, one of the deadliest single attacks in the impoverished Arab country’s relentless civil war. The Saudi Foreign Ministry said its UN mission sent a letter on Sunday to the Security Council, expressing the kingdom’s “deep regret of the reported attack” on the funeral. Saudi officials have promised to investigate the bombing.
Yemen’s war is largely overshadowed by the conflict against Islamic State elsewhere in the Middle East, though rights groups have mounted increased criticism of the Saudi-led air strikes in recent months for killing civilians.
The UN and rights groups estimate the conflict has killed at least 9000 people and displaced nearly three million more.