UN confirms 135 killed in Saudi airstrike on Yemen wedding

The United Nations has confirmed that over 130 people were killed in a Saudi airstrike on a wedding ceremony in Yemen.

The strike killed at least 135 civilians, including many women and children, the UN said on Tuesday.

“This may be the single deadliest incident since the start of the conflict,” UN human rights agency spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters.

On Monday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned similar airstrikes in the village of Wahijah, outside of the Red Sea port city of Mokha in Yemen.

“The secretary general expresses his deepest condolences and sympathies to the families of the victims and a swift recovery to those injured,” said a UN statement.

“The secretary general has consistently stated that there is no military solution to the conflict in Yemen. Its continuation will only bring more human suffering and destruction.”

"Any intentional attack against civilians is considered a serious violation of international humanitarian law. Violations of international law should be investigated through prompt, effective, independent and impartial mechanisms to ensure accountability," the UN statement added.

The UN confirmation of the deadly attack on civilians comes as Saudi Arabia had denied that its warplanes bombed the wedding ceremony. Saudi military spokesman Brigadier-General Ahmed al-Assiri said on Tuesday that the airstrike accusation was “completely false."

Human rights watchdogs have repeatedly criticized aerial bombardment of Yemen, saying they have struck areas without any military targets. 

Saudi warplanes also bombarded the al-Baqa district in Yemen’s mountainous northwestern province of Sa’ada on Monday. The Saudi military aircraft launched 12 airstrikes on an area in the Baqim district of the same province on the same day.

The airstrikes continued unabated on Tuesday. Lebanese Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news network said three members of a family were killed in the aerial assaults on the city of Ma’rib, the provincial capital of the central Yemeni province of Ma'rib.

Yemeni retaliation

Yemeni forces have been carrying out  retaliatory attacks against Saudi Arabia. Yemen's Arabic-language al-Masirah news agency, said that Yemeni army forces and allied popular committees have seized Kaab al-Jaberi military base and al-Mahtad village in Saudi Arabia's southwestern province of Jizan.

Al-Masirah added on Tuesday that Yemeni army forces and allied popular committees had targeted Saudi Arabia’s Ayn-al Sowrayn and al-Mahzaar army bases with rockets and destroyed ten Saudi military vehicles in Hamazeh village in Jizan.

Saudi Arabia launched its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 – without a United Nations mandate – in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and restore power to fugitive former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Riyadh.

Over 6,200 Yemenis have reportedly lost their lives in the Saudi airstrikes, and a total of nearly 14,000 people have been injured.

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