More than 140 people were killed and more than 525 injured on Saturday when air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition hit a funeral ceremony in Yemen, a United Nations official said.
The UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, said aid workers were “shocked and outraged” by the attacks that hit a community hall in the capital Sanaa where mourners had gathered.
“Initial reports from health officials in Sanaa indicate that over 140 people were killed and over 525 injured. This violence against civilians in Yemen must stop immediately,” he said in a statement.
One of the Arab world’s poorest countries, Yemen slid deeper into chaos when the Saudi-led coalition launched its air war in March 2015 to push back Huthi rebels and their allies who still hold the capital.
Saturday’s strike was one of the deadliest attacks since the bombing campaign began in support of Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
People had come from all over Sanaa to attend the funeral, said Mulatif al-Mojani, who witnessed the latest air strikes. “A plane fired a missile and minutes later another plane hit” the building where they had gathered, he told AFP.
Another witness, who declined to give his name, angrily described the attack as a “war crime.” “This was a funeral for one man in Sanaa and now it has turned into a funeral for tens of Yemenis,” he said.
In a statement to AFP, the Saudi-led coalition said it had no operations at the location and “other causes” for the incident must be considered.
The coalition “has in the past avoided such gatherings and (they) have never been a subject of targeting,” it said.
More than 6,700 people—most of them civilians—have been killed in Yemen since the coalition intervened, according to the United Nations.
In September 2015, a suspected coalition air strike killed at least 131 civilians at a wedding near the Red Sea city of Mokha. The Saudi-led alliance then also denied any involvement.
And in March this year, Saudi-led air strikes on a market killed at least 119 people, including 106 civilians, of which 24 were children, in the northern rebel-held province of Hajja.
(Feature image: Reuters)