The Arab coalition fighting in Yemen has denied responsibility for an air strike at a wedding hall in southwest Yemen that killed at least 38 people, including women and children.
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At least 80 women were killed in the wedding airstrikes, said Yemeni medical officials.
“For this reason, among others, the High Commissioner’s report recommended that coalition forces and the Government of Yemen ensure prompt, thorough, effective, independent, and impartial investigations”, Colville said.
The coalition said its intervention aims to restore Hadi’s authority in the country.
The American military is providing aerial refueling so that Saudi jets can carry out their operations while United States drones are providing real-time video of targets.
Two missiles were reported to have hit two tents in Southern Yemen on Monday where a wedding party was taking place.
On Tuesday, Zeid’s office, responding to questions raised by coalition-member Jordan, defended its human rights reporting, which has similarly indicated airstrikes are causing the majority of civilian casualties.
Yemeni security sources confirmed to the Associated Press Monday that there had been an air strike and a senior government official said it had been “a mistake”.
The United Nations Secretary-General’s office condemned the “disregard shown by all sides for human life” in the Yemeni conflict and noted that an “attack against civilians is considered a serious violation of worldwide humanitarian law”.
A coalition spokesman suggested that local militias may have fired the projectiles.
On Tuesday, Yemen’s President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi told the UN General Assembly that Iran “would like to see the destruction of the country”.
ADEN, Yeman _ As Saudi soldiers drive armored vehicles around Aden, the port in southern Yemen they helped recapture from rebels, young men clap and children flash the V-for-victory sign.
The U.S.-backed coalition was purportedly targeting Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, when it bombed a celebration in al-Wahga, a village near the strategic Strait of Bab al-Mandab.
“Saudi diplomats have robustly lobbied Asian, African and European states through their capitals or missions in Geneva”, Nick Cumming-Bruce reports in the New York Times.
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A total of 2,355 civilians have been killed in the war since late March, and 4,862 have been wounded, Colville said.
