Summary
On March 26, 2015, a nine-member coalition of states led by Saudi Arabia began an air campaign in Yemen against the forces of Ansar Allah – commonly known as the Houthis. In the preceding months, the Houthis, a Zaidi Shia armed group from northern Yemen, had taken control of the capital, Sanaa, and swept south threatening to take the port city of Aden.
Coalition airstrikes have targeted a number of cities and towns under the control of the Houthis. One of the places hardest hit has been Saada City, a Houthi stronghold in northern Yemen that is normally home to about 50,000 people. The Saudi Arabia-led coalition has extensively bombed Saada City: satellite imagery shows over 210 distinct impact locations in built-up areas of the city consistent with aerial bombardment. These attacks damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings.
Human Rights Watch conducted field investigations in Saada on May 15 and 16 during a five-day ceasefire, interviewing 28 local residents and examining impact craters and dozens of buildings damaged or destroyed by airstrikes. While many coalition airstrikes were directed at legitimate military targets in the city, Human Rights Watch identified several attacks that appeared to violate international humanitarian law, also known as the laws of war, and resulted in numerous civilian deaths and injuries.
Coalition attacks struck at least six residential houses not being used for military purposes. One attack killed 27 members of a single family, including 17 children. The airstrikes also hit at least five markets for which there was no evidence of military activity. Aerial attacks on an empty school and a crowded petrol station appear also to have violated the laws of war.
Human Rights Watch investigated each of these incidents by interviewing victims and witnesses to the attack, searching for possible military targets in the vicinity, and obtaining information about victims from medical sources and local authorities.
Human Rights Watch compiled the names and ages of 59 people killed in aerial attacks in Saada City between April 6 and May 11 on the basis of information from relatives, witnesses, medical staff, and local Houthi authorities. These include 14 women and at least 35 children. Human Rights Watch was not able to determine how many of those killed were civilians, but multiple members of the same families were among those killed, including women and children, indicating that many were civilians.
Under the laws of war applicable to the armed conflict in Yemen, civilians and civilian objects may never be deliberate targets of attack. Attacks that fail to discriminate between civilians and combatants or that cause civilian harm disproportionate to the expected military gain of an attack are prohibited. Warring parties are required to take precautionary measures to minimize incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, and damage to civilian objects. This includes avoiding the deployment of forces in densely populated areas.
On May 8, a coalition spokesman announced that the entire city of Saada was a military target. This not only violated the laws-of-war prohibition against placing civilians at particular risk by treating a number of separate and distinct military objectives as a single military target, but possibly also the prohibition against making threats of violence whose purpose is to instill terror in the civilian population.
Human Rights Watch called on all parties to the conflict to abide by international humanitarian law. The coalition should promptly investigate all alleged laws-of-war violations carried out by coalition forces, including those detailed in this report, and provide compensation and other redress to civilian victims as appropriate. Human Rights Watch urged the coalition not to use explosive weapons with wide area effect in populated areas because of the inevitable civilian harm caused. The United States and other coalition supporters should press the coalition to abide by its international legal obligations, and should also investigate alleged violations in any attack where they played a direct role.
