Washington has threatened a comprehensive review of its support for the coalition, as well as security cooperation projects with Riyadh.
With about 160 people dead and more than 500 injured, the October 8 airstrike on the funeral in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, has become the tragedy with the largest number of casualties since the military alliance of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia launched its airstrike campaign against Yemen’s Houthi rebels in March 2015.
Immediately, Houthi forces called it a massacre and accused the Arab coalition’s aircraft of carrying out the airstrike, simultaneously stepping up its threats to attack Saudi Arabia. A day after the tragedy, thousands of Yemenis organised a rally dubbed the “Volcano of Rage” outside UN offices in Sanaa to protest the joint air campaign.
Meanwhile, the Arab coalition denied its role in the attack, insisting that it had not conducted any air strikes aimed at Sanaa on the day the incident occurred. It also stressed that such gatherings were never on its list of targets.
The coalition also announced that it, along with the US, would immediately conduct an investigation into the case and was ready to provide all data and information related to military operations at the scene of the incident and the surrounding areas.
However, these assertions could not cool the flames of discontent, as well as public criticism from Yemen and the international community, aimed at the coalition. While the Yemeni government condemned the airstrike on the funeral and said that it was inhuman crime, Houthi rebels called it an act of “genocide.”
UN officials also expressed shock at the terrible attack and urged parties to the conflict in Yemen to comply with international humanitarian law, including the obligation to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Not yet insisting the Arab coalition was the perpetrator of the bloody tragedy, the US announced a review of its support for the Saudi-led military coalition, along with a call for concerned parties to cease fighting immediately.
US National Security Council Spokesperson Ned Price bluntly warned that Washington was willing to adjust its relations with Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies to better align with US principles, values and interests.
A coup that toppled Yemen’s former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2012 has plunged Yemen into chaos, especially since September 2014, after Houthi rebels seized Sanaa and advanced southwards, taking control of many regions in Yemen and forcing incumbent President Abdu-Rabbih Mansour Hadi take refuge in Saudi Arabia.
On the grounds of supporting the exiled government of President Hadi and stopping Houthi forces from extending their areas of control, Saudi Arabia set up military alliances with Arab countries and conducted airstrikes in Yemen.
However, efforts to curb the Houthis’ advance have not reached their goal. The coalition’s airstrikes, along with fighting on the ground, has so far left at least 10,000 people dead, including more than 4,000 civilians.
Having withdrawn its forces from Yemen after the security situation became difficult to control, in recent years the US has still quietly backed Saudi Arabia and Arab coalition forces in their campaign against Yemen’s Houthis.
US media has disclosed that since 2010, President Barack Obama’s administration has signed a series of contracts to supply arms and military aid at a total value of US$115 billion to Saudi Arabia. In particular, a large amount of such weapons was used by Riyadh in air campaigns in Yemen.
In addition to Saudi Arabia, the White House also agreed to sell weapons to other Gulf countries, such as Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE. Weapons purchase agreements with Arab countries were objected to by many US Congressmen, arguing that US weapons could cause heavy civilian casualties in Yemen.
The tragedy at the funeral in Sanaa last week was not the first incident of its kind, but a particularly serious incident. If the Arab coalition was identified as the culprit of the airstrike, the case would follow a series of recent problems regarding the coalition’s advance aimed at hospitals, schools and civilian infrastructure in Yemen, causing many civilian casualties.
Although there has been no final conclusion, the incident has also added new tension to US–Saudi Arabia relations, especially after the US Congress passed into law the “Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act,” or JASTA, allowing families of September 11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia’s government for damages.
