2024-03-21 19:18:43
Casualties occurred as a result of the group bombing the homes of its residents
The Houthi group’s massacre in the Yemeni city of Radaa in Al-Bayda Governorate received widespread governmental and popular anger and Western condemnation, amid the pro-Iranian group’s efforts to disavow it and describe it as an “individual act.”
On Tuesday, the group’s militants booby-trapped a house and an annex belonging to one of their opponents in the city, before its detonation led to the collapse of the neighboring houses on its residents, with government reports indicating that 33 were killed and about 15 others were injured, including women, children, and the elderly.
Remnants of houses blown up by the Houthis in the Yemeni city of Radaa, killing and wounding dozens of its residents (X)
Among the dead were 9 people from one family who died after their house was demolished, as residents carried out rescue operations, while the group was quick in a statement to describe the crime as an “individual act” by its members, amid accusations against Abdul Karim al-Houthi, who is the uncle of the group’s leader and appointed to the position of its Interior Minister. Giving orders to blow up houses.
According to local sources, the group, which uses the method of persecuting its opponents, sent a security campaign from Sanaa consisting of at least 12 military vehicles to the Al-Hafra neighborhood in the city of Radaa, to pursue a resident of the neighborhood, before its members carried out a booby-trapping and explosion operation.
Video clips on social media showed the scale of the tragedy caused by the crime, while hundreds took to the streets of the city, chanting for the fall of the Houthis, and describing their leader as the “enemy of God,” before the group’s gunmen responded by shooting them to disperse them.
We were deeply shocked by the reports published about the bombing of a house in Radaa, Al Bayda Governorate, killing and wounding many innocent people, including women and children. This horrific crime constitutes a serious human rights violation and must be investigated and those responsible held accountable.
— EUinYemen (@EUinYemen) March 20, 2024
In the first international comment on the incident, the European Union delegation to Yemen expressed its deep shock at the reports published about the bombing of a house in Radaa, Al Bayda Governorate, which resulted in the killing and wounding of many innocent people, including women and children.
The mission said in a tweet on the “X” platform: “This horrific crime constitutes a serious violation of human rights, and it must be investigated and those responsible must be held accountable.”
The American and British embassies also condemned the incident through two separate statements, stressing that these attacks are a reminder of the suffering that Yemenis are suffering from the Houthis.
Yemeni writer and researcher Hamdan Al-Ali told Asharq Al-Awsat that this crime is not an individual mistake, and such crimes will not be addressed simply by investigating them or punishing those who committed some of them here or there.
Al-Ali, author of the book “Complex Crime,” added that house bombings are a systematic policy practiced by the Houthi group from 2004 until today.
Government anger
The Houthi crime in the city of Radaa witnessed an official interaction at the highest Yemeni levels, and a member of the Presidential Leadership Council, Tariq Saleh, likened what happened to what the Israelis are doing in Gaza “without regard to the sanctity of the holy month, the teachings of Islam, the traditions and customs of the Yemenis, or humanitarian principles.”
The member of the Yemeni Governing Council pledged that “the blood of Yemenis shed by Houthi will not be restricted against an unknown person,” and described the horrific crime as “a continuation of the terrorist and sectarian approach of a militia that pays lip service to religion, of which he is innocent.”
An elderly man was recovered from under the rubble of his house as a result of the Houthi bombing in Radaa before he died as a grief to his family (X)
For its part, the Yemeni government expressed its condemnation in the strongest terms. “The heinous crime,” and she said in an official statement, “This massacre and horrific terrorist crime committed by the terrorist Houthi militia in this holy month is a revealing manifestation of the nature of this criminal terrorist group and its heinous behavior, and an extension of its aggression that it has been practicing against the Yemeni people since its rebellion against the state.”
The statement added, “The Yemeni government, while calling on the Arab, Islamic and international community and all humanitarian organizations to condemn this horrific crime, affirms that the crimes and violations of the terrorist Houthi militia will not be subject to a statute of limitations, and renews its commitment to restoring state institutions, overthrowing the coup, imposing security and stability, and ending Houthi terrorism.”
While the Houthi group seeks to disavow the crime, as it is the behavior of individual members, Yemeni Information Minister Muammar Al-Eryani said in a statement that “the militia is planning to present a number of its members in the city of Radaa as a scapegoat to absorb popular anger and cover up the involvement of its senior leaders in that crime.” It is terrible and throws ashes on the eyes.”
He added that the armed campaign that committed the crime consisted of armored vehicles and vehicles that left the hijacked capital, Sana’a, under direct orders from senior security leaders in the terrorist Houthi militia, and included an engineering team equipped with explosive tools entrusted with the task of planting explosives around the homes of (Al-Naqus and Al-Zayla’i) and blowing them up.
The Yemeni minister stressed that the policy of bombing houses and displacing their residents is not an individual act and excessive use of force, as the Houthi militia statement tried to portray, but rather an approach, behavior and method that the militia has taken since the coup to terrorize citizens and take revenge on those who oppose its coup project.
Al-Eryani pointed out that human rights organizations documented the Houthi militia’s bombing of 900 homes of state, army, and security leaders, politicians, media figures, sheikhs, and citizens. He said that the crime “sheds light on the reality of the Houthi militia, which falsely and falsely claims its protection, humanity, and movement to support Gaza, while it demolishes the homes of Yemenis on the The heads of its inhabitants, women and children.”
In the same context, the Ministry of Human Rights in the Yemeni government denounced the “crime,” and said that “this requires all international and local organizations concerned with human rights to work to monitor and document these grave violations committed by the Houthi militias against civilians and communicate them to public opinion and all UN bodies in preparation for prosecution.” “These terrorist militias.”
In a statement, the Ministry called on the United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and international organizations to condemn the serious and grave Houthi violations against civilians in the city of Radaa, Al Bayda Governorate, and various Yemeni cities, and to work to provide full protection for civilians.
A partisan and human rights condemnation
The “Musawa” Organization for Rights and Liberties reported in a press statement that it had received reports that the Houthis had bombed 8 houses in the Al-Hafra neighborhood in the city of Radaa in Al-Bayda Governorate, including two houses that were destroyed on top of their residents.
The statement mentioned the names of 9 dead from the Al-Yarimi family, in addition to 9 wounded from the same family, in addition to the names of the wounded from other families.
The organization explained that the houses that were bombed were the house of Muhammad Al-Yarimi, two houses of Ibrahim Al-Zayla’i, the house of Alawi Al-Majjar, the house of Al-Naqus, the house of Ahmed Khalabi, the house of Saleh Hadi, and the house of Al-Fayeh, where the Houthi militants imposed a stifling siege on the Al-Hafrah neighborhood, and planted a wide network of mines in the corners of the houses that were destroyed. Destroying it, they carried out a campaign of house raids and widespread arrests.
The Houthi group claims to support the Palestinians and has a free hand to violate the rights of Yemenis (Reuters)
For their part, the Yemeni parties, represented by the “National Alliance of Political Parties and Forces,” condemned in the strongest terms the Houthi crime in Radaa, and described it as “a chain and extension of the Houthi militia’s bloody approach and behavior, familiar and extending over the past years in all parts of Yemen.”
The parties said in their statement, “This heinous crime is a clear example that reveals the reality of this terrorist militia, which continues to claim its concern, sympathy, and support for the Palestinian people, while it practices the same behavior against the Yemenis that the Israelis practice.”
The Yemeni parties called on the Presidential Leadership Council and the government to move to complete the project to restore the state and end the coup and the Houthi rebellion by all available means and means of comprehensive national humanitarian struggle to alleviate the suffering and injustice and end the Houthi terrorism project before its threat escalates and the human and material cost of confronting and eliminating it doubles. According to the statement.
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