DUBAI: An air strike on a funeral wake, widely blamed on Saudi-led warplanes, poses more trouble for a Western-backed Arab campaign against Yemen’s Houthis that has long been criticised for civilian losses.
The White House announced an immediate review of Washington’s support for the 18-month-old military push after planes hit mourners at a community hall in the capital Sanaa on Saturday, killing 140 people according to one UN estimate and 82 according to the Houthis.
The statement from Riyadh’s main ally, noting for the second time in as many months that US support was not “a blank check”, sets up an awkward test of a Saudi-US partnership already strained by differences over wars in other Arab lands.
The reproach also indirectly hands a propaganda win to Riyadh’s arch rival Tehran, a Houthi ally that has long seen the Sunni kingdom as a corrupt and domineering influence on its impoverished southern neighbour, diplomats say.
Sources in the Saudi-led coalition denied any role in the attack, but Riyadh later promised an investigation of the “regrettable and painful” incident, with US expert advice. The move was apparently aimed at heading off further criticism of a military campaign already under fire for causing hundreds of civilian deaths in apparently indiscriminate attacks.
{{/usCountry}}Sources in the Saudi-led coalition denied any role in the attack, but Riyadh later promised an investigation of the “regrettable and painful” incident, with US expert advice. The move was apparently aimed at heading off further criticism of a military campaign already under fire for causing hundreds of civilian deaths in apparently indiscriminate attacks.
{{/usCountry}}An estimated 10,000 people have been killed in the war and the United Nations blames coalition strikes for 60% of some 3,800 civilian deaths since they began in March 2015.
The outcry over civilian casualties has led some lawmakers in the US and Britain as well as rights activists to push for curbs on arms sales to Riyadh, so far without success.
The coalition denies deliberately targeting civilians and says it goes to great lengths to ensure its raids are precisely targeted, with explosive loads calibrated to limit the risk of causing damage beyond the immediate target area.
The coalition accuses the Houthis, who seized much of the north in a series of military advances since 2014, of placing military targets in civilian areas. The Houthis deny this.
Fury in Sanaa at Saturday’s raid was echoed internationally. A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said any deliberate attack against civilians was utterly unacceptable.