By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2024-04-01

ADEN -- A March 19 attack in which the Houthis leveled eight private homes with explosives, killing 20 civilians -- most of them women and children -- has drawn widespread condemnation in Yemen and beyond.

The incident is not an isolated one, according to the American Center for Justice (ACJ), a nonprofit that advocates for victims of human rights violations, which released in December a report documenting numerous similar cases.

The bombing of private homes is "a systematic process undertaken by the Houthis as part of their approved means to punish their political foes and opponents," ACJ executive director Abdul Rahman Berman told Al-Fassel.

In a statement posted on X, the US ambassador to Yemen denounced the attack on Yemeni civilians in the al-Baydah province city of Radaa, where Houthi personnel used explosives to level several homes.

"We offer our condolences to the families and loved ones of the Yemeni civilians, mostly women and children, who were killed in this brutal attack," he said.

"This act of violence serves as a grim reminder of the ongoing suffering and instability that persists in areas controlled by the Houthis."

More than 120 civil society organizations also condemned the attack in the strongest terms, describing it as a flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law.

Not an isolated incident

The Houthis razed the Radaa home of Abdullah al-Zaylai on March 19, claiming they were retaliating for al-Zaylai's killing of a Houthi supervisor.

The Houthi supervisor had killed al-Zaylai's brother about a year ago.

When al-Zaylai's brother was killed, his family demanded that the authorities arrest the killer, but their request went unanswered, said Radaa native Fawaz al-Radai.

Meanwhile, the Houthi supervisor was driving around in a military vehicle in Radaa with impunity, he said, which prompted al-Zaylai to take revenge.

A female eyewitness said a Houthi individual "took measurement of the area that would be affected by the explosion and told his supervisor that neighboring houses would be destroyed," Berman said.

That supervisor reportedly replied, "No problem."

A specially trained engineering team and a security squad arrived from Sanaa with explosives, he added, indicating that the Radaa house-leveling incident was not an isolated act, but an organized one.

The bombing was carried out "despite their knowledge that many houses would collapse on the heads of their residents, and that a number of people would be killed and wounded," he said.

The Houthis' bombing of al-Zaylai's house destroyed eight houses in total, said Fahmi al-Zubairi, director general of the human rights office in Sanaa.

He described the incident as a "terrorist crime" and noted that children and women were among the victims.

"It is not the first time the Houthi militias have bombed a house," he told Al-Fassel. "There are statistics of the bombing of more than 1,000 houses and displacement of thousands of people from their homes."

'Tears over the rubble'

In its December 12 report, "Tears Over the Rubble," the ACJ examined the legal and humanitarian ramifications of the destruction of homes.

An ACJ field team was able to document the total destruction through bombing of 713 houses between March 2011 and September 2023.

Of this number, 703 houses were bombed by the Houthis and 10 by al-Qaeda and other armed groups, Berman said.

Of the 713 houses that were destroyed, he said, 513 had been looted beforehand.

Al-Bayda province topped the list with 118 houses bombed, followed by Taez with 110, al-Jawf with 76, Saada with 73, Ibb with 62 and Sanaa with 57.

Houses were also leveled in Marib, Dhamar, Hajjah, al-Dhale, Lahj, Amran, al-Hodeidah, Shabwa, Abyan and Aden, the report said.

According to the report, 89% of the victims of house bombings had been forcibly displaced from their original homes, with 65% seeking refuge in camps in Marib, Taez, al-Dhale and Hajjah provinces, or in abandoned homes.

In compiling its report, "the ACJ reached 713 homes via their owners, and we took full information from them or witnesses who were present in the area where the bombing occurred," Berman said.

The Radaa incident is not the first incident of its type in which civilians were killed, he added, noting that the ACJ has documented the death of 27 people in house bombings.

The victims of such bombings are not only military opponents but also politicians and human rights activists, he said, "and the motive is revenge."

The victims "were left homeless, and the tent became their home, in addition to losing their sources of livelihood due to their forced displacement," he added.