At least 31 civilians were killed and 12 injured in air raids on Saturday, February 15, in the aftermath of the crash of a Saudi military coalition fighter engaged in the war against the rebels in the country.
Houthi Yemeni rebels claimed to have shot down the Saudi "Tornado-type aircraft using an advanced surface-to-air missile". The coalition did not specify the reasons for the crash or the fate of the crew.
"Collateral damages"
Such a crash is rare since the start in 2014 of the conflict in Yemen, where the coalition, whose pillars are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, intervened in 2015 to support power against the rebels who control the regions north and west of the country, as well as the capital Sanaa.
On Friday evening, a Tornado aircraft belonging to the Saudi forces fell in the Yemeni province of Jawf (north) during an air support mission to the government forces, said the spokesman of the coalition, the Saudi Turki al-Maliki, cited by the SPA agency, without further details.
After the crash, rebel organ Al-Massirah reported multiple strikes by the military coalition against Al-Hayjah, a rebel-controlled area in Jawf, where residents "gathered around debris from the 'plane shot down'. The rebels have reported many deaths, including women and children.
"Preliminary reports indicate that 31 civilians have been killed and 12 injured in air raids on Al-Hayjah," the UN Humanitarian Coordination Office (Ocha) said in a statement.
In a new statement, the Riyadh-led coalition admitted "the possibility of collateral damage" during a "search and rescue" operation at the crash site. Aviation is a crucial asset for the coalition in the conflict.
Reinforcement of the rebels' arsenal?
Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, denounced "terrible strikes". "Under international humanitarian conventions, the parties using force have the obligation to protect civilians. Five years after the start of this conflict, the protagonists still do not respect this, it is shocking."
The Houthis for their part disseminated images presented such as those of the missile's firing and the moment when the plane was hit and crashed into a ball of fire.
On his Twitter account, a spokesman for the Houthis, Mohamed Abdelsalam, said that "the destruction of the plane is a heavy blow for the enemy, and testifies to the significant improvement in the defense capabilities" of the rebels.
This escalation comes after heavy fighting around Sanaa, the rebels trying to advance on several fronts towards Hazm, the capital of the governorate of Jawf. Most of this governorate is in the hands of the Houthis, but Hazm is controlled by pro-government forces.
If the Houthis' claim is confirmed, this would signal the strengthening of the arsenal of rebels accused of receiving arms from Shiite Iran, which claims to support them politically and not militarily.
With AFP
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