Saudi-led coalition blamed for carnage as bombs hit Yemen market
#YemenCrisis
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/least-65-killed-after-saudi-led-warplanes-hit-yemeni-market-reports-1496546013Two reported air strikes hit busy market in Mastaba, in Houthi-held Hajja province, killing at least 41 people and littering streets with bodies
Local witnesses held Saudi coalition jets responsible for the attack (AFP)
Tuesday 15 March 2016 17:20 UTC
Last update:
Tuesday 15 March 2016 19:01 UTC
The Saudi Arabian-led coaltion in Yemen has been blamed for the deaths of scores of people in an attack on a market in the Houthi-controlled province of Hajja.
The attack on Tuesday killed at least 41 and wounded 75 others in the city of Mastaba, according to the Houthi-controlled state news agency SABA.
Local news site Sahafah, which is known to support the Houthis, reported that the death toll had risen as high as 107, though these figures could not be independently verified.
The political high command of the Houthi movement said it held the Saudi-led responsible for the attack. The Saudi government has not commented.
The AP news agency reported witnesses as saying the attack was an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition opposed to the Houthis, although Middle East Eye cannot verify the report.
The scene was terrifying," Showei Hamoud told AP. "Blood and body parts everywhere. People collected the torn limbs in bags and blankets."
Witnesses said that at least two bombs hit the market and there were no military targets in the area. Photos on Twitter showed horrific scenes of the dead and dying in the aftermath.
A Houthi-run TV network showed footage of the aftermath of the attacks in which dead children and charred bodies were visible.
A spokeswoman for the NGO Doctors Without Borders told the AP news agency that at least 40 of those wounded were transferred to a hospital nearby.
The political high command of the Houthi bloc on Tuesday evening held the Saudi-led coalition responsible for the bombing, saying in a statement that the attack "does not in any way help us achieve peace.
"Rather, it will lead to a continuation of war and an escalation in the situation on the ground," said the statement, quoted by the Houthi-run al-Masirah website.
Hajja fell to the Houthis in September 2014. It has has been targeted several times by the Saudi-led coaltion, including air strikes on a water-bottling plant in August which killed 34 people and injured dozens.
Rights groups have repeatedly urged the coalition to avoid causing civilian casualties.
Last month, Human Rights Watch accused the coalition of using US-supplied cluster bombs.
The coalition has said that an independent inquiry would examine charges of possible abuses against civilians in the conflict.
A panel of UN experts says the coalition has carried out 119 sorties that violated humanitarian law, and called for an international probe.
Saudi Arabia last year formed a coalition to support the Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi in his war with the Houthi movement, which took control of large areas of the country after kicking Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.
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