Saudi-led force admits strike in Yemen’s capital hit civilians

Al-Sabah Al-Yemeni | special |

A Saudi-led Arab coalition on Saturday conceded that an air raid in Yemen’s capital a day earlier had resulted in civilian casualties, blaming the incident on an unspecified “technical error”.

Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki defended the strike as having “a legitimate military target”, which he said was a Houthi command and control centre. He accused the fighters of using civilians as human shields.

“A technical error was the reason for the unintentional accident and the house in question was not directly targeted,” he said a statement carried by Saudi state news agency SPA.

Maliki said the coalition expressed remorse for “collateral damage to civilians” but did not specify the extent of casualties.

However, a senior ICRC official visited the site of the strike on Friday and said, “From what we saw on the ground, there was no apparent military target.”