Saudi Gazette report
Riyadh — The Iranian-backed Houthi militias in Yemen violated the laws of war by launching ballistic missiles indiscriminately at populated areas in Saudi Arabia last month, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.
The attacks killed an Egyptian migrant worker and injured two others in Riyadh.
During the three-year armed conflict the Houthis have fired artillery into populated cities in Yemen and launched missiles toward populated areas in Saudi Arabia.
“The Houthis should immediately stop their indiscriminate missile attacks on populated areas of Saudi Arabia,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
When deliberately or indiscriminately directed toward populated areas or civilian objects, such attacks violate the laws of war. Those ordering such attacks may be responsible for war crimes.
When used in densely populated areas, ballistic missiles with large payloads of high-explosives have a wide-area destructive effect.
At a news conference on March 26, the Saudi-led coalition spokesman, Col. Turki Al-Maliki, announced that the “scattering splinters of the missiles” landed in various neighborhoods of Riyadh, killing and wounding the migrant workers.
He said Iran was exporting the missiles to the Houthis in Yemen.
In January 2018, the United Nations Panel of Experts on Yemen stated that it had “identified strong indicators of the supply of arms-related material manufactured in, or emanating from Iran subsequent to the establishment of the targeted arms embargo on 14 April 2015, particularly in the area of short-range ballistic missile technology.”
The Saudi-led coalition spokesperson stated on March 26 that Houthi forces had fired 104 ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia since the beginning of the conflict.
The Houthis have frequently, indiscriminately shelled densely populated areas in Yemen in violation of the laws of war, killing and wounding civilians.
These attacks have had a particularly heavy toll on Yemen’s third largest city, Taiz, Human Rights Watch said.
