Saudi warplanes attacked the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, hitting a hotel in the northern Arhab District. At least 60 people were killed and over a dozen wounded in the attack. The hotel collapsed more or less entirely, and aid workers are still recovering bodies from the site.
The attack appears to have been deliberate, with officials saying it was against a “legitimate military target,” requested by the Saudi-backed southern Yemeni government, and that Shi’ite “renegades” were present in the hotel, the apparent target. It being a hotel in a major city, however, there were obviously many civilians within, also killed.
This is the deadliest single attack so far.in 2017. It is not the deadliest attack of the war, however, which was an October incident in which the Saudis bombed a funeral procession, killing at least 140 people.
The Saudis have been under growing criticism for the huge civilian death toll their air war has caused. The number of airstrikes have been on the rise through 2017, and the civilian death toll resulting from them has already far surpassed the whole toll of 2016.
The Saudis have plenty of bombs and mercenaries to attack others, but a serious internal uprising or invasion from a neighboring country might not face much resistance. The royal family is feared, but I don’t think it’s very loved, nor will their people care much which autocrat rules them. When that happens, the country will become even more islamic extremist and anti-american, but that is the only path towards democracy someday that I can see. The way the Saudis are going, we might see this soon.