30 August 2015: Al Sham Water Bottling Factory in Abs/ Hajjah hit with an airstrike, killing 14 civilians, including 3 children and wounding 11. CAATuk

JIAT acknowledged the coalition carried out an airstrike on al-Sham Water Bottling Factory in Hajjah on August 30, 2015.  In its statement, JIAT said that “due to weather conditions” and “some clouds” the laser-guided bomb missed the target. JIAT concluded it was an “unintentional error.” Right after the strike, then-coalition spokesman Gen. Ahmad al-Assiri had told Reuters: “We got very accurate information about this position and attacked it. It is not a bottling factory.”[70] Assiri told CNN, “There is no factory, we attacked a military camp in Hajjah where they train mercenaries to send them to kill our soldiers.” JIAT recommended the coalition apologize and provide assistance to victims but did not provide a full accounting of the civilian harm caused, stating the coalition hit the factory, causing “destruction … some deaths and injuries.” Human Rights Watch interviewed witnesses to the attack and found the airstrike killed 14 workers, including three boys, and wounded 11 more.[72] Many of the dead and wounded, as well as the owner of the factory, were from the same family. JIAT did not identify which states’ forces participated in the attack, nor who would be responsible for paying redress. Those involved should be criminally investigated for possible war crimes and civilian victims provided redress – HRW report.

A group of international journalists traveled to the site two days after it was hit and reported that they could not find evidence of any military targets in the area. They said that they carefully examined the site, and took photos and videos of piles of scorched plastic bottles melted together from the heat of the explosion. They could not find any evidence that the factory was being used for military purposes – HRW report.

The majority of Western media outlets reported the death toll to be 36. However, HRW had visited the site following the airstrike, which might deem their statements to be accurate.

In another air raid on the capital Sanaa, residents said four civilians were killed when a bomb hit their house near a military base in the south of the city – Reuters report.

Rape or suicide in UAE prisons in Yemen report: In a new scandal of horrific UAE violations of civilians in Yemen, a report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that the UAE officers raped many detainees in Yemen – Yaman Yoon report.

In Hajjah, a civilian was killed while three others were wounded due to the shelling by the mercenaries of the aggression on a civilian house. Several governorates had been attacked on the very same day, most notably, the Saudi southern Governorate of Jizan was raided as well – Yaman Yoon report.

The Saudi-led coalition destroyed a number of water wells on the Island of Kamranan in Hudaydah governorate – OFQ News report.

A child was killed and four others were injured, including two children and a woman as a Saudi-led airstrike targeted their home in Hodeida – OFQ News report.

30 August 2018: Coalition carried out 5 airstrikes on 4 fishing vessels at sea near Aqban Island, to the west of Al Khawbah, in Al Lihyah district of Al Hudaydah governorate. 7 civilians killed, 2 injured. (UN Panel of Experts report, January 2019)

CAATuk