Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) in Yemen refuted five Houthi allegations promoted for by Amnesty International and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights against the Arab Coalition fighting to restore power to the freely-elected government in Yemen.
JIAT also expressed its readiness to provide full facts regarding the recent Saada incident, once the data is complete and the investigations are concluded in a transparent and impartial manner.
Speaking at a Riyadh presser on Sunday, JIAT spokesman Mansour Al-Mansour gave the findings of the probe.
Intelligence reports from Yemen had detected a gathering of Houthi leaders inside a building in Lahj province on May 25, 2016. Coalition airstrikes hit the building in Mahalla village, killing six people. Citing rules of military engagement, JIAT report said the presence of the militants made the building a legitimate target.
More so, the report says that coalition forces on May 27, 2018, bombed three “suicide boats” anchored in the port of Hodeidah that were part of a Houthi mission to attack shipping in the Red Sea. The JIAT said there were no civilians in the area and no damage to commercial shipping.
As for airstrikes on a crowded market in Yemen that killed 54 civilians, coalition forces were targeting Houthi militia troops and vehicles, the investigation added.
The report said the bombing of the site in Taiz Province last year took place after the Houthis had indiscriminately shelled a nearby village in the days leading up to the strike, causing civilian casualties and forcing families to flee. The airstrikes were called in by forces on the ground on Dec. 26.
Probing airstrikes in June 2015 on houses in Saada province which reportedly killed 11 members of a family, the JIAT discovered that a Houthi leader had been at the premises and weapons and military equipment were stored at the target point. As a result, the report said the site was a high-value, legitimate military target.
On the allegation that an airstrike hit a vehicle in Marib on 16 September 2017 and killed 12 people, the JIAT investigation found that a vehicle was targeted during an engagement with armed Houthi militiamen in a hostile area in Marib governorate.
Arab Coalition jets carried out an air strike on an armed vehicle, found in a rural area near the village of Shuja Harib Qaramish. The targeted vehicle, according to reports, was found in an unpopulated area located 80 kilometers west of the city.
