Sanban Village

A wedding party in Sanban, Anns governorate, turned into a horrible massacre after it was hit by an airstrike by the coalition countries, resulting in the death of 43 people, mostly women and children, and the injury of 70 others. The incident occurred in October when members of the Sanbani family were preparing for the wedding party of three couples. The invited families began to arrive at the wedding at around 9:00 pm on 8 October, after the three couples were brought to the Sanbani’s house on a small hill overlooking the village of Sanban, about 150 km south of Sanaa. The people at the wedding did hear the sounds of the jet planes throughout the evening, but never felt they were in danger because the jet planes had previosuly flown in the area withoutany attacks. The bomb dropped by a coalition warplane exploded the gas cylinders and fuel tanks stored for the wedding, setting the building ablaze. About 43 people, including the three brides/grooms, were killed and injured. Not only was the Sanbani's house destroyed, but also 25 other houses in the village were damaged in the airstrike. The Sanbanis and other residents said there were no military targets in the vicinity—no presence of Houthi forces or even a checkpoint. The airstrike killed 43 people, including 13 women and 16 children while a dozen others were injured, which resulted in one of the ugliest and gruesome mass killings. None of the victims have received any sort of compensation from the coalition. Since 26 March 2015, the Saudi-led coalition of nine Arab states, with direct US support, has launched a military campaign against the Houthis who control much of Yemen. Human Rights Watch and others reported that the number of indiscriminate airstrikes by coalition forces have killed and continue to kill and injure hundreds of Yemeni civilians. There is no information whether any investigations were conducted into the alleged illegal attacks as dictated by the international humanitarian law.