The Arab Coalition’s Joint Incident Assessment Team (JIAT) in Yemen, held a press conference on Saturday, in the Saudi capital Riyadh, to release its assessment of the investigations conducted into the air strike targeting a building in Dhahian, Saada.
The official spokesman of the JIAT, Legal Counsellor Mansour al-Mansour said during the press conference that video footage from the plane which conducted the strike was analyzed.
Mansour Al-Mansour said: “The investigation involved flights in the area of Dhahyan on the day of the incident.”
“We have checked videos from the plane that was flying in the area at the time of the incident.”
He said the coalition launched the raid in Dhahyan based on intelligence.
“The presence of Houthi leaders in the region was reported. Sources reported that the Dhahyan bus was transporting elements of armed Houthis, targeting the bus inDhahyan led to the killing of a number of Houthi leaders.”
The raid on Dhahyan targeted several training camps for the Houthis.
He addeded that the bus Dhahyan was a legitimate military target because it has Houthi leaders.
Mansour confirmed that targeting the bus led to the killing of a number of Houthi leaders. He said that “the raid on Dhahyan does not comply with the coalition’s rules of engagement,” adding that the bombing was not justified at the time, since the target was not a threat to the coalition forces in this case.
The spokesman called on the coalition to provide assistance to civilians affected by the raid.
The official spokesman of the JIAT also called on the coalition to hold accountable those responsible for the mistakes in the Dhahyan raid.
He added “There was a significant delay in preparing the fighter jet assigned to target the bus in Dhahyan.”
On August, 12, The official spokesman of the JIAT, Legal Counsellor Mansour al-Mansour said on during a press conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh, that the coalition had received intelligence information indicating the presence of Houthi military commanders in a house located in a remote isolated area.
