Thread by @bellingcat

We have released our first full set of reports as part of the #YemenProject.

20 in-depth open source investigations into Saudi-led Coalition (SLC) airstrikes in #Yemen.

You can read our executive summary here:

bellingcat.com/news/mena/2019…

During these investigations, which covered incidents from 2015-2019, it became clear that the SLC were carrying out strikes in civilian areas, including bustling markets, weddings, funerals and prisons, often resulting in hundreds of civilian casualties.

Often it appeared that the mass civilian casualties that resulted from these strikes were entirely foreseeable, such as when the SLC bombed a funeral hall in Sana’a in 2016, killing over 100 people.

The funeral hall was full of people when it was hit.

You can still see the two holes in the floor where the bombs detonated.

The body that the SLC uses to investigate incidents like this, the Joint Incident Assessment Team (JIAT), does not appear to be particularly competent.

In 7 out of 10 incidents JIAT investigated, we found that the open source information did not fit what they said had happened.

For example, after a strike on the Al Khamis market in Mastaba, JIAT claimed that the market had not been affected by the airstrike.

JIAT Statement:

These are ground-level image of the same location marked by the red box in the JIAT presentation, take by @HRW investigators.

Does this look like a place that hasn’t been affected by an airstrike to you?

@hrw In conducting the investigations, our researchers followed a methodology designed with lawyers @GLAN_Law, with a view to maximising the reliability of the resulting reports in the event that they were ever used as evidence in a court of law. glanlaw.org/single-post/20…

@hrw @GLAN_LAW With the news that another prison was allegedly bombed on Sunday, possibly resulting in over 100 fatalities, we believe these reports help to indicate a risk that weapons sold to Saudi Arabia may be used in breaches of International Humanitarian Law.
washingtonpost.com/world/middle_e…

@hrw @GLAN_LAW With thanks to all the people who gave up their time and helped to make this possible, including Rawan Shaif, @RawanSSA18 who created this project, and Nick Waters, @N_waters89, the lead investigator.

You can read the investigations in full at yemen.bellingcat.com.