U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition forces have recently bombed two separate civilian wedding parties in Yemen, killing as many as 130 innocent people in the first attack on Sept. 28 and at least 28 in the second attack on Oct. 8.
According to residents, on Sept. 28, two missiles tore through wedding tents in the Red Sea village of Al-Wahijah, near the Al-Mokha, where a man affiliated with the Houthis was holding a wedding reception. The carnage in this attack was horrendous and many of the victims were women and children.
Ahmed Altabozi, who said a niece, Fatma Al-Khaishani, had been killed in the bombing of the wedding party, called the attack inexplicable. The wedding tents were in a remote stretch of the desert, far from any “military sites, soldiers or the presence of the state.” The majority of villagers had already left the area, fearing the airstrikes, he told The New York Times.
Mr. Altabozi said that he heard the bombs from his house, which is less than a mile away, about 11 a.m. Two initial airstrikes hit one tent, and other bombs, minutes later, fell on a second tent where a group of women had taken shelter, causing most of the casualties, he said.
“I saw no body intact,” he added.
Less than 10 days later, Saudi bombs attacked a wedding taking place in a house south of the capitol Sana’a, killing as many as 28 civilians.
Three of Muhammed al-Sanabani’s sons were to be married in a joint ceremony on Wednesday night, the cousin told the New York Times. The airstrikes occurred just as the brides had arrived at the house. At least one of the sons was killed in the attack, Mr. Sanabani said.
“I saw bodies lying in the yard, decapitated, charred,” he said.
In both cases, the Saudi coalition refused to take responsibility for these massacres, alleging that local militias might have been the perpetrators. However, the New York Times, acting in its role as spokesperson for U.S. imperialism, clearly identified the Saudi coalition as the responsible party. They forget to mention the role in these atrocities of the United States, in providing bombs, planes and “intelligence.” In typical fashion, they also avoid using the the word “massacre” to describe the mass killing of defenseless civilians.
Yemen is embroiled in a four (or more) way civil war; Saudi Arabia has intervened on behalf of the government of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who took over the presidency after Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down. The Saudis claim to be acting to drive out the Houthis who are one party to the civil war. The entrance of the Saudis into the civil war has resulted in upwards of 4,000 civilian deaths. Progressive people must defend the right of the Yemeni people to determine their own government free from outside intervention.
