A mass funeral was held in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Wednesday for 44 people, including 21 children and 10 women, who were killed by Saudi airstrikes that hit civilian homes in al-Shariya village in the Bani Hushaish district of Sanaa province on Saturday.
Mourners held prayers at the Mosque of the People on the southern outskirts of the Yemeni capital city and then held a procession to al-Shariya, where the victims were buried, according to AFP.
Yemen’s SABA news agency reported that mourners “condemned the targeting of civilian homes and expressed solidarity with the victims’ families, vowing to preserve the memory of those martyrs.”
Earlier this week, Daifallah Sarhan, a resident of al-Shariya, told AFP “they were all innocent… People were simply having a meal with their families and children” when the strikes hit.
The Saudi attack in al-Shariya marked the worst incident of civilian harm in the bombing campaign since Riyadh reignited the war by bombing the Sanaa International Airport in July. The Saudi bombing campaign significantly escalated in September, when Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, made rapid gains in a ground offensive against Saudi-backed forces in Yemen.
Since then, the Saudi air campaign, which is backed strongly by the US, has had a devastating impact on Yemeni civilians, following the same pattern as the Saudi war in the country from 2015 to 2022.
The US has up to 200 military advisors inside Saudi Arabia providing intelligence for the Saudi strikes and has also resumed refueling Saudi warplanes, a form of support that was cut off back in 2018 due to pressure from Congress.
According to reports from the Yemen Data Project, US-backed Saudi airstrikes killed at least 66 civilians in September and 140 civilians in October.
