The Arab coalition said on Wednesday it has not received any information from the United Nations about an allegation that six civilians were killed in an airstrike in Yemen.
The UN secretary-general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Sunday that the UN was concerned about a reported airstrike by the coalition in Shabwa that allegedly killed six civilians from the same family.
The comments were made within a statement strongly condemning the Houthi militia for executing nine people on Saturday.
Spokesman Brig. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki said he “deeply regretted” the UN’s decision to issue the statement linking the airstrike claim with the Houthi executions.
He said the coalition has followed up on Dujarric’s statement about the alleged Shabwa airstrike and “accordingly, the coalition confirms that it did not receive any coordination or information from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Yemen about this claim, as is customary in the coordination mechanism and in such cases.”
He said the coalition is seriously looking into the allegation and taking the necessary measures to verify the accounts. The issue has been referred to the Joint Incidents Assessment Team, which will announce the results, he said.
Al-Maliki said the coalition applies the highest standards of targeting in its military operations in accordance with international humanitarian law, and applies the best international practices in rules of engagement.
He said there had not been any claims of incidents during the past 14 months, which showed the coalition was taking all necessary measures to spare civilians from collateral damage.
The coalition, he said, was exercising the highest degree of restraint while the Houthi militia launched hundreds of ballistic missiles and explosive-laden drones at civilian targets in populated cities in Saudi Arabia. He added they have not even targeted Houthi capabilities and terrorist leaders after the militia used civilians as human shields.
Spokesman of the Saudi-led military coalition Colonel Turki al-Maliki gestures during a press conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh, on September 16, 2019. - The weapons used to strike two Saudi oil plants were provided by the kingdom's arch-foe Iran, the spokesman of the Riyadh-led coalition fighting in Yemen said. The Tehran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen, where a coalition is bogged down in a five-year war, claimed the September 14 strikes on two facilities in Saudi Arabia, owned by state energy giant Aramco, which sent shock waves across oil markets. (Photo by Fayez Nureldine / AFP) (Photo credit should read FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images)