On the night of 6 May 2015, an air strike of the Saudi-led coalition forces hit Abdullah Ali Mohamed Qasim Al Ibbi's house in the north-western Yemeni city of Saada, bordering Saudi Arabia and known as the heartland of the Houthis. While Abdullah and three of his sons survived the attack, the air strike killed 27 of his relatives, mostly women and children.

Since the start of the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen on 26 March 2015, the densely populated area of Saada has become a prime target of the Saudi-led coalition, including through dozen air strikes that destroyed or damaged civilian homes and infrastructures such as markets, schools and petrol stations, constituting "serious laws-of-war violations that need to be properly investigated," as expressed by Human Rights Watch's Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Sarah Leah Whitson. This one single air strike killed 27 civilian, adding itself to the hundreds of civilian casualties documented in the Saada area alone in the past months.

"This tragedy is a direct consequence of a deliberate policy of the Saudi-led coalition to consider entire towns as legitimate military target without any distinction between civilian places such as schools, hospitals and homes and effective military areas," said Radidja Nemar, Regional Legal Officer for the Gulf at Alkarama. "This constitutes a serious violation of humanitarian law and the policy should be revoked urgently."

In its communication to the Special Rapporteur Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions (SR SUMX), Alkarama requested this UN Special Procedure on human rights to urge the Saudi authorities to investigate any air strike leading to civilian deaths as well as to ensure an open, independent and effective inquiry into the killing of the 27 members of the Al Ibbi's family and to offer compensation to them.

Concerned over the violations committed by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, and recalling the principles of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), Alkarama calls on all parties to the conflict, including the Houthi forces, to put an end to these violations, especially by:

• Respecting all IHL principles, in particular those of Distinction between Civilians and Combatants, of Precautions against the Effects of Attacks and of Proportionality in Attack; as well as of international human rights law;
• Revoking the unlawful policy of considering entire villages and towns as uniform military targets;
• Launching an independent, prompt and thorough investigations into air strikes that led to civilian casualties and offering redress and reparation to the victims;
• Committing to prosecute and punish all perpetrators of serious human rights violations.

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