Saudi-led coalition air strikes on a rebel stronghold in Yemen have destroyed houses, markets and a school, killing dozens of people in what could amount to war crimes, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. The US-based rights group said it had investigated the attacks on the northern city of Sadaa and found that at least 59 people had died in a month, from April 6 to May 11, including 14 women and 35 children.
Satellite imagery showed over 210 strike sites in the city, a stronghold of the Shia Houthi rebels, damaging or destroying hundreds of buildings, said the report. Six houses were hit in Saada, as were an empty school, a cultural center, five markets and a petrol station crowded with motorists, according to the report.
In one of the deadliest incidents, a bombing raid on May 6 killed 27 members of one family including 17 children. Attacks on houses alone have killed 51 people, all of them civilians, according to Human Rights Watch, which dispatched two researchers to the city last month to interview witnesses. Belkis Wille, one of the researchers, said "Yemen has been absolutely brought to its knees in this war."
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