Saudi Arabian-led coalition strikes in Yemen could be breaking international law, says Human Rights Watch

According to the United Nations, around 5,884 people have been killed in Yemen since March

The aftermath of an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition on Sanaa earlier this year (Getty)

Air strikes conducted by the Saudi Arabian-led coalition could have broken international law in Yemen after claiming the lives of 60 civilians in residential districts, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.

The NGO, which interviewed survivors of the strikes, claims it found no evidence of military targets in the Old City and in the Al-Asbahi neighbourhood, adding that homes in several other areas were hit “200 metres or more from possible military objectives.”

In the report the group claims the coalition “carried out at least six apparently unlawful air strikes in residential areas” of Sana’a, the country’s capital. It adds: “Coalition members and the United States, as a party to the conflict, are required under the laws of war to investigate such attacks, but they have not.”

Joe Stork, the group’s deputy Middle East director, said: “How many civilians will die in unlawful air strikes in Yemen before the coalition and its US ally investigate what went wrong and who is responsible.

“Their disregard for the safety of civilians is appalling”.

The war being raged in Yemen involves a Saudi-led coalition of Sunni Arab states that has launched an all-out air campaign against the Iranian backed Houthi groups who seized Sana’a in 2014. It has quickly escalated into a humanitarian crisis with numerous reports of civilian targets being hit by the coalition’s air strikes.

According to United Nations' figures, the war in Yemen has killed at least 5,884 people since March, when fighting escalated after Saudi Arabia began air strikes against the Houthi. Cross-border shelling has also killed dozens of Saudi border guards and soldiers.

According to the report, one of the Saudi Arabian-led coalition strikes hit a house in Sana’a’s Old City, a Unesco World Heritage Site, on the night of September 13, killing 18 civilians.

Abd al-Khalike Muhammad al-Khamisi, who was interviewed by the group, said he was sleeping at home with his family in their second-floor apartment – around 50 metres from where the strike hit.

The 29-year-old said: “I woke up to a loud noise, and felt the glass from all the windows in the room shatter on top of us. My wife and I asked each other why a bomb would drop here; there was no military target near here. It was so loud, so dark.”

Additional reporting by PA