Hadda Neighborhood, Sanaa
Since the beginning of the current fighting in March, coalition aircraft have frequently attacked the Hadda compound of the Special Security Forces, a paramilitary force under the control of the interior minister and currently acting on the orders by the Houthis. Sanad Ali al-Badawi, 35, who lives about 200 meters away, told Human Rights Watch that on September 4, between 9 p.m. and midnight, five coalition airstrikes hit the Special Security Forces compound.
A sixth strike, at about 1:15 a.m. on September 5, hit the four-story apartment building where the al-Badawi family lives. Three civilians were killed: a woman and two children.
Al-Badawi, whose father owns the apartment building, told Human Rights Watch that he had been sleeping:
I woke up with bricks on top of me. I could hear my brother yelling my name. He pushed open the door to my bedroom, threw all the debris that was blocking his path out of the way, and helped me get out. We went downstairs to where my parents and younger brother sleep – they were all okay. Then we went to check on my 17-year-old sister, Sana. The walls to her room had been blown off and her room was full of dust. The roof had collapsed on top of her room, and the floor had given way from under her, so her bed had fallen two floors down.
Al-Badawi’s family called for help from the police, the Houthi authorities, and passers-by, but, al-Badawi said, all refused, saying they feared another strike might follow. At 3 a.m., nearly two hours later, he and other family members were able to pull Sana out of the rubble, still alive, and take her to the hospital. At 3:50 a.m., doctors pronounced her dead.
The blast tore away the wall of the room occupied by al-Badawi’s father, Saleh al-Badawi, 55, injuring his neck and back. “I assumed the strike was on the security compound nearby,” he said. “It took me awhile to realize it had hit my house and that the room I was in was now wide open to the world.” His wife, Mahlia Saleh, 50, suffered significant hearing loss in both ears from the explosion.
A Syrian family was leasing the top-floor apartment. The mother, Rimaz, 35, lost her leg and died that night. Her son, Nizar, 8, died from wounds eight days later.
Sanad Ali Al-Badawi said that the blast blew the family’s safe, containing the equivalent of about US$18,500 in cash, from the third floor to the street. Neighbors later told him that they saw armed men in a military vehicle take the safe away within hours of the strike. The family contacted the Houthi authorities to request the return of the safe, but had not received a response.
Nascent Yemen 
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