‘Mistake by Yemen army’ led to air strike on Sanaa funeral

Investigators say wrong information plus insistence on immediate action led to strikes without Saudi-led coalition command's approval.

The destroyed funeral hall is seen after was hit by an airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen. Hani Mohammed / AP Photo

RIYADH // A mistake by the Yemeni army led to last week’s air strike on a funeral hall in Sanaa, an investigation by the Saudi-led coalition has found.

An unidentified person affiliated to Yemen’s general chief of staff headquarters provided intelligence that the hall was filled with Houthi rebel leaders and was therefore “a legitimate military target”, according to a report published on Saturday by the coalition’s Joint Incidents Assessment Team.

The air operations centre in Yemen then directed a “close air support mission” to target the site without approval from the coalition’s command. The attack killed at least 140 people and wounded nearly 600 more.

“Certain individuals” in the operations centre had insisted on the strike, Mansour Ahmed Mansour, a spokesman for the investigators, said on Saturday.

“If the coalition had been notified and given a chance to review the no-target list, it would have found out that the hall was among the facilities that enjoy protection from air strikes,” he said.

However, “there was very, very strong insistence to carry out the attack within a specific frame of time and quickly, which gave no window for the coalition to review the orders. The people who were inside the air operations centre are the ones we hold responsible. They should be held accountable”.

The investigators called on the coalition to review its rules of engagement and recommended that compensation be offered to the victims’ families.

The coalition said it accepted the results of the investigation and had already begun to implement the recommended changes.

“The coalition command expresses its regret at this unintentional incident and the ensuing pain for victims’ families,” it said.

An Omani aircraft landed in the rebel-held Yemeni capital on Saturday to take 115 of the most seriously wounded for treatment abroad, after the coalition eased its air blockade.

The aircraft also flew home to Sanaa the rebel negotiating team who had been stranded in Muscat since the collapse of UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait in August.

Oman is not part of the coalition fighting to restore the legitimate government of president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi.

The air strikes on the funeral triggered a wave of counter-attacks against American and Saudi targets.

A US navy destroyer deployed in international waters in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen came under attack by the Houthis twice in recent days.

In response, the US destroyed three radar installations on Thursday in Houthi-controlled ports near Bab Al Mandeb, the strait that joins the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.

Houthis and allied army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh have also fired rockets and missiles at Saudi military installations and airbases across the Yemeni-Saudi border.

* Agence France-Presse