Saudi Airstrike Kills Family of Three in Northwest Yemen

House destroyed in pre-dawn strike near al-Hamra

Fresh off of Saudi admissions of “mistakes” in their airstrikes against Yemen, a pre-dawn Saudi airstrike against al-Hamra, in northwestern Yemen, destroyed a civilian house, killing a family of three.

The area is about an hour south of the Yemen-Saudi border, where there has been some report of fighting. Saudi officials have provided no indication why the area was attacked, let alone the civilian home.

The three people inside the home were a husband and wife and their young daughter, all of whom were killed. There have been no comments from the local area as to their identities, though they did live in the destroyed home.

Airstrikes killing civilians are alarmingly common in Yemen, where since 2015, Saudi Arabia has been fighting a war, intending to prop up former President Hadi. The airstrikes are mostly in the nation’s north, and often it isn’t obvious why the targets are chosen at all.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.