Sana’a: Leading rebel officers were among those killed in the weekend air strike on a funeral in Yemen’s capital, blamed on pro-government Arab coalition warplanes, according to official media reports on Tuesday.
Funerals for several top rebel-allied officers and officials killed in Saturday’s strike were held in Sana’a on Tuesday, rebel-controlled Saba news agency reported.
The Iran-backed rebels have blamed the Saudi-led coalition for the air strike.
The coalition said on Sunday it was ready to investigate the “regrettable and painful” strike, while UN chief Ban Ki-moon demanded a “prompt and impartial” probe.
Three commanders of the elite republican guard brigades, loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh who is allied with Al Houthi rebels, were said to be among those killed.
They were named by Saba as General Ali Al Jaefi, head of the republican guard, and Brigadiers Abdul Malik Marzooq and Ali Al Hamzi.
General Ahmad Manea, a member of the supreme security committee, was also among those killed in the air strike which killed at least 140 people and wounded more than 525 others, according to the UN.
Deputy security chief of Sana’a province Ahmad Al Shalef, and the head of the rebels’ civil status authority, Brigadier Yahya Al Rowaishan, were also listed as killed in the attack.
According to the Saudi Press Agency, Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz has directed the King Salman Centre for Relief and Humanitarian Aid to coordinate with the Command of Coalition Forces, the Yemeni government and UN institutions, to facilitate the transfer of those wounded from the the funeral hall strike whose cases necessitate treatment outside Yemen.
Meanwhile, Saudi air defence forces shot down a ballistic missile fired by the Al Houthi militia toward Khamees Mushait city in the kingdom’s southwest on Tuesday night, a Saudi-led coalition said in a statement carried by the state news agency SPA.
The Royal Saudi Air Defence Forces destroyed the missile before it could cause any damage, according to the statement by the coalition.
Saudi forces responded to the missile attack by attacking the launch site, the statement added.
It was the second such missile launch since the strike on the funeral.
Khamis Mushait is home to an air base which has been at the forefront of the coalition bombing campaign against rebels and their allies.
It is about 100 kilometres from the Yemeni border.
The attempted rebel strike marks at least the fifth time they have tried to hit Khamis Mushait since the coalition began its bombing campaign.
On Sunday, rebels launched a missile against another Saudi air base, in the city of Taif, 500 kilometres (300 miles) from the Yemeni border, but it too was shot down.
The Yemen conflict has killed more than 6,800 people — almost two thirds of them civilians — and displaced at least three million since the coalition launched its campaign in support of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
