More than 130 people died in an explosion at a wedding party in rural Yemen, local officials said on Tuesday, as the United Nations expressed alarm about the growing number of civilian casualties in the country’s conflict.
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The bombed wedding celebration took place not far from the Red Sea port of Mokha, which has witnessed aerial bombardment on many occasions, Yemeni-based journalist, Muhammad Al-Attab, told RT.
The same day, Saudi Arabia announced two of its soldiers had gone missing in Yemen and were believed to be in the custody of the Houthis.
Pictures printed on the front pages of Gulf dailies showed the foreign troops and local tribesmen planting the flags of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia over the dam.
The Saudi-led coalition again denied responsibility for an air strike on a wedding party in Taiz province on Monday which medics said killed 131 people, in one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in the war.
But a senior Iranian foreign ministry official told the Reuters news agency: “Iran has never interfered in any country’s state matters and will never do it. We support peace and stability in the region”. “Violations of worldwide law should be investigated through prompt, effective, independent and impartial mechanisms to ensure accountability”.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) cited both sides of the conflict, including a Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s government in exile, and Shia rebels, known as Houthis.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned on Monday’s air raid, saying intentional attacks on civilians were considered a “serious violation of global humanitarian law”.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman congratulated Yemen’s President Abedrabbu Mansour Hadi on his triumphant return to Aden to continue discharging his duties as the country’s legitimate president.
The Iranian boat was stopped by the anti-Houthi coalition 150 miles (241 kilometers) south east of the Omani city of Salalah in the Arabian Sea at 1.00 pm on Saturday, according to the statement.
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U.S. military advisers are stationed at a joint military command center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia providing intelligence and vetting lists of potential air strike targets. World Food Program spokeswoman Bettina Luescher said 10 of Yemen’s 22 governorates were so short of food that famines were looming.
