Amnesty International said on Wednesday that the US bombing of a migrant detention facility in Yemen earlier this year amounted to an indiscriminate attack and should be investigated as a war crime.
The US strike was launched on April 28 and killed 68 African migrants who were detained at the facility in Yemen’s northern Saada province. The attack was part of the US military’s bombing campaign in Yemen that was conducted from March 15 to May 15, which was dubbed “Operation Rough Rider,” and killed more than 250 civilians.
Amnesty said in a report on the strike that it “did not find any evidence that the migrant detention centre was a military objective or that it contained any military objectives.”
The report, which involved interviews with 15 Ethiopian migrants who survived the attack, also pointed out that the US should have been aware that the strike would result in heavy civilian casualties since the Saudi military, with support from the US, bombed the same facility in 2022 and killed more than 90 civilians.
“Given the air strike killed and injured civilians, the US authorities should investigate this attack as a war crime. The result of the investigation, including any conclusions related to civilian casualties and efforts to respond to them, should promptly be made public,” Amnesty said.
Operation Rough Rider involved another mass civilian casualty event, the US bombing of the Ras Issa fuel port in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, which occurred on April 17. The strikes killed 84 civilians, mainly workers at the port, according to Airwars.
When the US announced the attack on the port, it did not allege that it was hitting a military target. US Central Command justified the bombing of vital civilian infrastructure by saying the Houthis, who govern an area where about 70% to 80% of Yemenis live, “profit” off fuel that enters the port.
While Operation Rough Rider inflicted a lot of harm on civilians, it failed to stop the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, from continuing their attacks on Israel. The Trump administration framed the bombing campaign as necessary to protect US ships, but the Houthis were not targeting US vessels when it started. The US began the strikes in Yemen after Ansar Allah announced it was restarting its blockade on Israeli shipping in response to Israel violating the January Gaza ceasefire deal.
