Iran Condemns Deadly Saudi Air Strike on Yemeni Wedding
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry strongly denounced a “barbaric” Saudi air strike that killed scores of civilians at a wedding ceremony in a village in Yemen’s northwestern province of Hajjah on Sunday.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi on Monday described the escalation of Saudi-led air strikes on civilians in Yemen’s residential areas as a “sign of frustration and failure of the aggressors” that have attacked Yemen.
Bombing Yemen’s residential areas, targeting civilians, and blocking delivery of humanitarian assistance amount to the violation of humanitarian law, the spokesperson deplored, calling on the UN to accelerate efforts to end the aggression on Yemen and protect civilian lives.
Qassemi also slammed as “irresponsible” the move by certain Western countries to supply arms to Saudi Arabia.
Sunday’s air strike by the fighter jets of a Saudi-led military coalition on a wedding ceremony in Yemen’s Bani Qais killed at least 40 people and wounded many others.
Head of a local hospital said most of the bodies have been torn to pieces, and that 46 people had been injured, including 30 children.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
Over 14,000 Yemenis, including thousands of women and children, have died in the military campaign.