Saudi coalition admits culpability for strikes that killed more than 140 at a Yemeni funeral

The aftermath of a Saudi-led strike on a funeral in Yemen

(Image credit: Mohammed Huwais/Getty Images)

published 15 October 2016

The U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition waging an air campaign in Yemen took responsibility Saturday for strikes that killed more than 140 people and injured nearly 600 more last week. A Saudi investigation concluded the ceremony was "wrongly" hit after a source falsely "insisted that the location be targeted immediately [was] a legitimate military target."

The inquiry blames both "non-compliance with coalition rules of engagement" and "the issuing of incorrect information" for the devastating strike, which produced the single largest death toll in Yemen's grueling civil war.

The report recommended that Saudi Arabia take appropriate action against "those who caused the incident, and that compensation must be offered to the families of the victims."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.