Yemen to probe civilian fatalities in air raid

Sep 17, 2009, 17:32 GMT

Sana'a, Yemen - Yemeni authorities on Thursday formed a panel to investigate reports of the death of 87 civilians Wednesday in an airstrike in the country's north-west, where the national army is battling Shiite rebels, the official Saba news agency reported.

A fighter jet shelled a gathering of people in a flat, rocky expanse in al-Adi area of the Harf Sufian district of Amran province, tribal sources said. In a second raid, they said, a war plane bombed survivors as they ran for safety in nearby farmland.

The country's Supreme Security Committee said the army command formed a fact-finding commission to investigate the reported civilian deaths.

The committee, though, said in a statement that al-Adi was a 'military operation zone' and that the government troops have recently killed three field rebel leaders in that area.

A local source in Houth district of Amran said the victims of the raid were buried in makeshift graves Thursday morning.

Military officials contacted by the German Press Agency dpa on Wednesday denied the reported casualties among civilians, saying there was no gathering of displaced people in al-Adi.

The Defence Ministry blamed the rebels for 'preventing citizens from leaving to the safe areas.'

'The terrorists are using innocent citizens as human shields,' the ministry said in an e-mailed statement that did not directly mention the airstrike.

A military source told the official Saba news agency that 'several rebels were killed' as the army struck rebel gatherings in Saada province and Harf Sufian district of neighbouring Amran province Wednesday.

Saada, some 240 kilometres north of Sana'a, has been the centre of fierce fighting between the rebels, known as Houthis, and government troops since the army launched a massive offensive on their strongholds on August 11.

Both sides continue claiming to have inflicted heavy casualties over the last five weeks, but none of the claims have been independently verified, with the media denied access to the restive province.

Officials said the offensive will only end when all insurgents surrender or are killed.

This is the latest flare-up in the fighting that has raged on and off since the Houthis revolt began in mid-2004.

Authorities accuse the Shiite group of seeking to restore the rule of the Zaydi royal family, which was toppled by a republican revolution in 1962 in northern Yemen.

The Houthis say they are in revolt against government corruption and the Yemeni alliance with the United States.