BOX

PICTURE REF

SOUND

1.       

Pre-title

It was the deadliest attack in Yemen’s 21-month war.        

140 people killed, over 500 injured in Saudi led air strikes – as they attended a funeral.    

2.       

Husain

I was people burning, their heads were burning or cut off. 

3.       

The Saudis said the attack was based on “incorrect information” and said their Yemeni partners were to blame.

We cross the frontline to ask who was responsible.  

4.       

Magdashi sync

Nawal

Are there any Coalition personnel in the operation room in Yemen?

Magdashi

From the Coalition forces and Yemen.      

Magdashi

In every room.  

Nawal

In every room. 

5.       

And we follow the bombs back to where they came from – America.  

6.       

Sync congressman

Apparently the US and the United Kingdom thinks it is totally fine for these strikes to keep on happening and I am very outraged that we are still assisting what looked just like war crimes.  

7.       

The bombing raised serious questions for Saudi Arabia and its allies the US and the UK about the conduct of the bombing campaign.

Could this airstrike have changed the course of the war in Yemen?

8.       

Title page

The Funeral Bombing

9.       

Memorial event…

Relatives and friends are gathering in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. They are paying their respects to the victims of the worst airstrike in the country’s war.

10.   

Nawal PTC

PTC

There are thousands of people here that have come to mourn their loved ones that were lost in the great hall and as they are doing that the Saudi-coalition airplanes are circling above.

11.   

Memorial event

At today’s memorial event, amongst the mourners, are senior figures in the rebel government that controls the capital and large parts of the country.

Over two years ago, the Houthi rebel alliance forced the internationally-recognised government of President Hadi into exile.

A Saudi-led coalition, backed by the US and the UK is trying to put him back in power,  and has carried out thousands of airstrikes.

12.   

Set-ups Abdullah….

Aston - Saturday 8 October

For the mourners - returning to the burnt out wreck of the community hall brings back traumatic memories.   

A month earlier, people were making plans to attend the day-long funeral of a respected senior tribal leader.  

13.   

Abdullah

I was having lunch with my sons. Sadiq heard that we were going to the funeral.

He said I'm coming with you Dad. I said it’s fine, we agreed to go together.

14.   

When Abdullah and his youngest son Sadiq arrived, the building was packed with senior political and military leaders from Yemen’s rebel government.    

15.   

Religious duty to attend

Abdullah

Funerals in Yemen are known for their religious traditions. It’s a duty to attend them.

16.   

Sanaa street GVs

The funeral had been advertised widely, in keeping with Yemeni tradition thousands of people - most of them civilians -  were on their way to attend.

17.   

Saleh

One of the coalition’s key enemies was amongst those expected. Rumours swirled that the former President of Yemen - now one of the main rebel leaders -  was in the funeral hall.   

Minutes before the bombing, an elite security unit that usually only travels with  Ali Abdullah Saleh - entered the building.   

18.   

Until now, it’s still not been confirmed whether he was there.

We obtained a rare interview with him.

19.   

Nawal

Were you there at the funeral?

Saleh

I was close to the Great Hall, about 150 meters away. I saw a lot of people and cars at the entrance so I turned my vehicle around and went somewhere else.

Nawal

So you were planning to go to the funeral?

Saleh

No, I wasn’t planning to go. I only passed the funeral on the way to another place.  My son and nephew went on my behalf.

20.   

Also at the funeral were hundreds of civilians from the country’s  many tribes who had nothing to do with Yemen’s war.   

21.   

It was 3.20pm.   

22.   

Abdullah

The airstrike felt like an earthquake.

Nobody in the hall thought of who they were sitting next to or where their relatives and friends were. They were going in different directions but I saw my son Sadiq and felt reassured that he was out of danger.

23.   

Husain walking through destroyed hall

One of those attending today’s memorial event is 14 year-old Husain.

24.   

Husain interview

Husain

I was standing then falling. At that moment, I wanted to fly and escape. I was standing then falling. I felt as if I was in a dream. Then I touched my leg and it was real.       

25.   

Husain’s leg was trapped in the rubble. He was desperate to break free quickly.   

26.   

Husain

We all expected another airstrike. One wasn’t enough. They always do that.

27.   

Fearing another bomb was going to be dropped on the funeral hall, Husain and his father drew their daggers and cut his leg off.

28.   

Husain

There was a piece of flesh hanging off my leg. It was stuck in the rubble. I couldn’t move, so we cut it off and fled.

29.   

Red Crescent teams rushed to the site of the bombing as soon as they heard the news. 

30.   

Red Crescent man

I was close to the incident, just a few metres away. I was in the ambulance.

When there is a bombing like this, we expect another hit, so I stopped somewhere safe.

31.   

It was a wise decision. A pilot was preparing to drop another US-made bomb. The United States is the main supplier of aircraft and armaments to the Coalition. 

The second 500lb paveway guided bomb crashed through the roof, detonating inside the hall just when the wounded were being evacuated and medical teams and rescuers were entering the site.   

32.   

Nawal ptc

This hall at full capacity can take up to 2000 people. Now everyone I’ve spoken to tells me that it was absolutely packed. The first airstrike dropped right over here and as people were running out of the windows and the first responders were coming in to treat the casualties around six to seven minutes later the second airstrike dropped over here.

33.   

Nawal

Many of the people you treated from the funeral hall incident were rescuers?

Red Crescent man

Yes sure, many civilians went to help and became victims. 

34.   

Red Crescent man

It’s common. After the first strike, those with a relative or brother inside enter without thinking. 

35.   

Sadiq’s father - Abdullah - who had escaped the funeral hall - still believed his son was safe having seen him flee the burning building. 

36.   

Abdullah

Before the second airstrike, Sadiq called his brother, telling him about the bombing. He told him I had died. He was screaming at the top of his voice. The call was disconnected. Sadiq then went back to look for me in the hall.

37.   

Two airstrikes on the same target with a gap of minutes between them is known as a double tap. This is often classified as a war crime - as it targets rescuers and medical teams.

38.   

Sadiq was killed by the second strike whilst searching for his father. He was 26 years old and had been married for just a month.

39.   

Abdullah

Sadiq died true to his name, true as a martyr, true to himself, to God and his father.

40.   

Archive of bombing aftermath

Sadiq’s death and that of the 139 others also allegedly broke international humanitarian law. 

41.   

PTC in graveyard

PTC

It is forbidden to launch an attack on sites where the loss of life or injury to civilians is out of proportion to the direct military advantage gained. The community hall was a well-known civilian establishment and the funeral gathering had even been widely advertised on media and Facebook.     

42.   

Sanaa top shots

Initially, the Saudi-led Coalition denied striking the funeral at all.

The United States expressed immediate concern, warning that security cooperation with Saudi Arabia was not a blank cheque.

43.   

A week later a Saudi-led investigation team blamed an unnamed person in the Yemeni military for the strike. It accused the Air Operations Centre in Yemen for directing the bombing without obtaining approval from Saudi Arabia.  

44.   

Looking at the report on her computer in hotel room

However, we’ve obtained a rebel government intelligence report based on mobile phone records and interviews. It says informants were giving live updates of who was arriving at the funeral, making the case that the airstrike was not only deliberate but pre-planned.

45.   

Saudi response…

Nawal

The Saudi-led Coalition stated that the bombing was launched from the operations room in Yemen, and the Coalition Command in Saudi Arabia were not involved in it. What do you think?

Saleh

I don’t think so, this was planned.

Intelligence agents passed on information that the target was at the funeral. The decision to hit the hall was made in Saudi Arabia.

46.   

The Saudi’s have denied that their central command in Riyad authorised the strike. They blame the Air operations centre in Marib – so I’m going there.

47.   

I’m keen to hear what they say about the attack on the funeral hall.

48.   

Marib is only 100 miles east, but due to the war we need to skirt round the main frontline  - a ten hour drive through the mountains.  No western journalist has visited here since the war started.

49.   

I meet units of the national army leading the battle to take control of Sana’a from the rebels.

50.   

General Qumary

This is the battlefield. Can you see the black mountains in front of us?

51.   

These forces are equipped and supported by the Saudi-led coalition and have their wages paid by them.

52.   

MAREB GVS

The key person I want to interview here is the head of the Yemeni army. He’s in command of the Air operation centre in Marib

53.   

Nawal

Did you know the funeral was taking place in the great hall?  

Magdashi

No, we had no idea.    

We and the Coalition are not at all pleased with what happened in the community hall. It might be a mistake. Whoever made the mistake will take full responsibility, but we will not cast blame until we finish the investigation.

Nawal

But did the forces under your command request this airstrike?  

Magdashi

As I told you, it is still under investigation 

Nawal

But you know what you have requested and not requested, did you order this?

Magdashi

In what way?

Nawal

Did you order a pilot?

Magdashi

Sometimes a commander on the frontline asks to this or that to a target but I told you the investigation is still on-going to find out who was responsible.

54.   

The Saudi-led Coalition stated that its  Command in Saudi Arabia did not know about the attack on the funeral hall – and blamed Yemenis in the Air operation center here.

But General Magdashi is confirming for the first time that foreign coalition personnel in the Air operation center were always present.

55.   

Nawal

Are there any Coalition personnel in the operation room in Yemen?

Magdashi

From the Coalition forces and Yemen.      

Magdashi

In every room.

Nawal

In every room. 

Nawal

Who controls the airstrikes? Do you have control?

Magdashi

Look, actually, the targets are obvious. We coordinate on what targets to hit, on the battlefronts, on everything.

Nawal

Does every target need sign-off from the Coalition?

Magdashi

Sure, that’s how we coordinate.

56.   

This raises doubts that it was just the Yemenis who ordered the strike on the funeral hall.

We asked the Saudi government for a response but they declined the request.

57.   

MUSIC

The Saudi’s have always emphasised how tightly they control the air campaign to avoid mistakes being made. 

58.   

Egyptian TV clip…  May 2016

Major-General Asiri

When a Coalition jet takes off from base, the flight is closely monitored through sound, video and other data.

Interviewer...

There is no way a pilot can make mistakes with the targets? 

There is no way, and there’s no way for us to receive inaccurate information.  Usually it is made accurate from a number of sources.

59.   

The funeral bombing was the first time the Coalition admitted a serious breach in its own rules of engagement in its 21-month campaign. 

60.   

But the UN, NGOs and many human rights groups have regularly criticised the way the Coalition air campaign has been conducted since its start in March 2015.

61.   

To find out more, I am travelling to the Yemeni city that has been bombed the most by Coalition jets, and the site of another double tap air strike. 

62.   

It’s a 165 mile drive northwest of Yemen’s capital to Saada, which is the homeland of the Houthi rebels.

Journalists rarely venture here.  

Over two years ago, the Houthi rebels launched their offensive from here, making it a key target.

63.   

When the Coalition air campaign started in March last year, the city of Saada was pounded.  

64.   

Saada PTC

This was once Saada’s busiest market, hundreds of people used to make a living here selling sweets food clothes, Now it is completely destroyed. They fled leaving everything behind.    

65.   

The UN panel of experts on Yemen found that the Saudi-led Coalition had seriously breached international humanitarian law in May 2015 by declaring the entire city of Saada a military target, making no distinction between combatants and civilians, launching indiscriminate attacks.   

66.   

PTC

According to the United Nations, in the first wave of airstrikes, almost 1200 structures were hit. Amongst the targets were five markets, a petrol station.

Forty per cent of the population fled.

67.   

On January the 21^st Coalition jets were circling near Saada waiting to strike. A bomb was dropped on a residential area near the city.

An ambulance was despatched from this hospital. Abdulmalek Amer was the driver.

68.   

Mohammad Hagar

I shouted at him and told him not to risk his life. He said that every second counts pulling a wounded person from the rubble and taking them to hospital.

69.   

Abdulmalek arrived at the scene in his ambulance. What happened next was captured on camera.

70.   

As with the funeral bombing in Sana’a - a  Saudi-coalition plane carried out a second airstrike just as civilians were aiding the wounded. 

71.   

Mohammad Hagar

During the second airstrike, Abdulmalek was with a large group of rescuers.

Abdulmalek survived the second strike.

72.   

Abdulmalek picked up some of the injured. Shortly afterwards there was a third airstrike.

73.   

Airstrike

74.   

Abdulmalek’s ambulance took a direct hit.

He and 17 other people were killed in the three airstrikes. 36 were injured.

75.   

Funeral bombing site

The funeral bombing in Sanaa on the 8th October was one of thousands of Coalition airstrikes since March last year.

The bombs in that strike all came from one place - the United States.

76.   

I’m come to Washington D.C. The United States government has been the Saudi-led Coalition’s strongest backer, providing intelligence, logistical and advisory support. Billions of dollars of US weapons sales have been approved.

We’ve learnt the US air force has - on average - refuelled Coalition jets twice a day during its 21-month Yemen campaign.

77.   

After the funeral bombing the White House announced an immediate review of US support expressing serious concern about how the conflict is being waged.

78.   

Nawal PTC

Despite this, we’ve learned that the day after the airstrikes, the US air force refuelled Coalition jets. In a four week period since then, US tankers flew over 87 missions, refuelling 386 aircraft with 1.7million litres of fuel. Indeed, this is slightly higher than the monthly average refuelling support given by the US since the start of the air campaign. 

79.   

There’s been growing concern in Congress about US assistance. Representative Ted Lieu was in the US Air Force and serves as a Colonel in the Reserves. He’s been following the campaign closely.

80.   

Lieu sync

We are flying our tankers with US pilots, we are refuelling these jets of the Saudi Arabia military led coalition and then they are dropping bombs but if you look at the law of war of international law you can be guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes, so if you are in that direct military operation, refuelling a jet that then commits a war crime my view is that opens up the United States to great risk and we need to stop doing it.

81.   

Only this week the White house released a provisional statement following the funeral bombing. For the first time since the war began they are blocking the supply of $350million of precision munitions to Saudi Arabia.

But the refuelling of coalition jets – which only the United States has the capacity to do - will continue.

82.   

No current US official working on Yemen would give an interview but a recently retired senior State Department ambassador, who worked on Yemen during the first year of the war, agreed to talk to me.

83.   

Ambassador Jerry Feierstein

I don’t believe that Saudi Arabia is guilty of war crimes and  I don’t believe that the United States or the UK for that matter is complicit.

So you have to be careful about how you make the assertion and it has to be on the basis of a clear examination and investigation of the facts before you can say that this was in fact a war crime and intent also has to do with it.

84.   

The Funeral hall is to be preserved as a monument to those who died.

The UN estimates that more than 4000 people have been killed by coalition airstrikes - sixty per cent civilians.

The Saudi-led Coalition says this figure is exaggerated.

A UN panel of experts found that the double tap strike on the funeral hall - breached international humanitarian law - this could make it a war crime.