He is Saleh al-Sammad, who served as the acting president in Houthi-controlled areas and the head of the group's Supreme Political Council.

The strike was carried out Thursday in eastern Hodeida province by a "US-Saudi" warplane, the council said.

The announcement was made on Al-Masirah TV and the Yemen News Agency a day after airstrikes struck a wedding party in northwestern Yemen, killing nearly three dozen people and wounding several more.

The council declared three days of mourning for Sammad's death and selected Mahdi Mohammed Mashat as its head.

The Yemen war began in early 2015, when Houthi rebels drove the US-backed government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. Saudi-led coalition airstrikes are behind 61% of all civilian casualties in Yemen's war, according to the UN human rights office. Indiscriminate shelling and sniper fire by Houthi rebels in heavily populated areas accounted for most of the remaining dead and wounded, a UN statement added. Earlier this month, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres dubbed Yemen's war the world's worst humanitarian crisis , with more than 22 million people -- three quarters of the population -- in desperate need of aid and protection. Sunday night, at least 33 people were killed and 41 wounded after airstrikes hit a wedding party in northwest Yemen. Two missiles hit the celebration in the town of Hajja several minutes apart, eyewitnesses and officials told CNN. At least 17 women and children were killed in the strikes, according to official sources. Yemen's Houthi officials say the strikes first hit the men's gathering of the wedding before hitting the women's section nearby. A young boy clings to his unconscious father's body after the airstrikes. "Due to many casualties from the coalition-led wedding attacks, field hospitals were made near the site of the attacks giving injured civilians medical treatment in order to save lives," said a spokesperson for the Houthi-held Health Ministry, Abdul Hakim Alkhulani. "Tens have been killed and the final toll for victims is still not clear. The United Nations have proven that it has no influence to force coalition forces to end massacres against civilians," Alkhulani added. In retaliation for the strikes, the Houthi rebels fired two missiles at a Saudi oil port, a senior official at the Houthi-controlled defense ministry told CNN. The missiles were intercepted over Jazan, a coastal city in southern Saudi Arabia, around 4:26 p.m. (9:26 a.m. ET), coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al Maliki told CNN. The Saudi-led coalition which has been fighting Yemen's Houthi rebels said it was investigating the strikes on the wedding party. "We take this report very seriously and it will be fully investigated as all reports of this nature are. Whilst this is ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further," al Maliki said. The strikes wounded 32 children, according to the head of the Al-Jimhori hospital in Hajja, Mohammed AlSomali. Graphic news footage of the airstrike's aftermath showed injured people wheeled into a hospital. We sell them the planes and the bombs. We provide intel and help them select the targets. We refuel their planes mid attack. 



There is a U.S. imprint on every civilian death in Yemen. https://t.co/8YaseJpVdn — Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 23, 2018 A US senator condemned American involvement in Saudi-led airstrikes on Yemen. In response to a report on the wedding party deaths, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said on Twitter: "We sell them the planes and the bombs. We provide intel and help them select the targets. We refuel their planes mid-attack." </s> Members of the Higher Council for Civilian Community Organization inspect a destroyed funeral hall as they protest against a deadly Saudi-led airstrike on a funeral hall six days ago, in Sanaa, Yemen, on Oct. 13, 2016.

CAIRO — A Saudi-led coalition on Saturday blamed "wrong information" for the bombing last weekend of a packed funeral hall in the Yemeni capital Sanaa that killed at least 140 people and wounded some 600.

The coalition's Joint Incidents Assessment Team, or JIAT, said a "party" affiliated to Yemen's General Chief of Staff headquarters had passed intelligence that the hall was filled with leaders of Shiite Houthi rebels, whom the coalition has been targeting since March 2015 when it intervened in Yemen's civil war in support of the internationally recognized government.

The unidentified party insisted the site was "a legitimate military target," the English-language statement said. The Air Operation Center in Yemen, it added, directed a "close air support mission" to target the site without approval from the coalition's command.

The investigation team called on the coalition to immediately review the rules of engagement and recommended that compensation be offered to the victims' families.

"JIAT has found that because of non-compliance with Coalition rules of engagement and procedures, and the issuing of incorrect information, a Coalition aircraft wrongly targeted the location, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries," it said.

This is the first time the coalition has acknowledged it was behind the bombing, after an initial denial. The Yemeni government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has yet to publicly comment on the October 8 bombing.

Yemen's chief of staff is Maj. Gen. Mohammed Ali al-Maqdishi, a close ally of the powerful army general Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, now serving as vice president. Al-Ahmar is also a top ally of Yemen's Muslim Brotherhood, whose followers are fighting the Houthis alongside government troops.

The US-backed coalition, which accuses Houthis of being Iranian proxies, has come under heavy international pressure to investigate the bombing. Human Rights Watch said in a report Thursday that the bombing constitutes an apparent war crime and said remnants of a US-made bomb were found at the site of the strike.

Along with arms, the United States provides the coalition with logistical support and mid-air refueling of its warplanes. The White House has said it will immediately review its assistance to the Saudi-led coalition, explaining that such assistance was not a "blank check."

The bombing of the funeral hall was not the first by the Saudi-led coalition to lead to civilian casualties. Over the past year, busy markets, weddings, schools, and hospitals have been bombed by the Saudi-led coalition, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries.

The deadly airstrikes on the funeral triggered a wave of counter-attacks against both U.S. and Saudi targets.

A U.S. Navy destroyer deployed in international waters in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen came under attack twice in recent days from areas under Houthi control. In response, the U.S. destroyed three radar installations in Houthi-controlled ports near the Bab al-Mandab strait on Thursday, in the first direct U.S. involvement in the war in Yemen.

The Houthis denied firing at the destroyer and accused the U.S. of using the attack as a justification to become directly involved in the war against the militias.

Houthis and allied army units loyal to ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh have also fired rockets and missiles targeting Saudi military installations and air bases across the Yemen-Saudi border.

On the diplomatic and political level, the bombing intensified pressure on the Saudi-led coalition. The coalition had forced the closure of Sanaa international airport for the past two months, after the collapse of peace talks between rival parties in Kuwait.

However, a Houthi official said Saturday that the coalition has agreed to open the airport to allow a team of peace negotiators sent by Houthis and allies from Saleh's onetime ruling party to return to the country. The negotiators have been stuck for in Oman for two months after leaving Kuwait.

Meanwhile, more than 100 people who were injured in the funeral hall bombing have been allowed medical evacuation to seek treatment outside of Yemen, a government official said.

Both the Houthi and government officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

The Saudi-led coalition has imposed a blockade on Yemen since the start of the war. </s> CAIRO (AP) — An investigation team with the Saudi-led coalition said on Saturday that wrong information led to the lethal bombing of a packed funeral in the Yemeni capital Sanaa last weekend, which killed around 140 people and wounded more than 600.

The Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) accused “a party affiliated to the Yemeni Presidency of the General Chief of Staff” of passing wrong information that the hall was packed with Houthi leaders, whom the coalition has been targeting since their militias swept the capital last year and forced Yemen’s internationally-recognized government into exile in Riyadh.

It added that the party insisted the location was “a legitimate military target,” the statement written in English said. It also said the Air Operation Center in Yemen directed a “close air support mission” to target the site without getting approval from the coalition’s command. The committee said compensation must be offered to the victims’ families.

“JIAT has found that because of non-compliance with Coalition rules of engagement (ROEs) and procedures, and the issuing of incorrect information a Coalition aircraft wrongly targeted the location, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries,” it said.

This is the first time the coalition acknowledges it was behind the bombing, after an initial denial. The Yemeni government in Riyadh led by President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi made no public comment on the bombing of the funeral.

The statement gave no clear indication of which party provided the information. The Yemeni Chief of Staff is Maj. Gen. Mohammed Ali al-Maqdishi, who is close to the powerful army general Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar — now serving as a vice president and a top ally to Yemen’s Muslim Brotherhood-tribal and political arm.

The investigation team called on the coalition to “immediately review their rules of engagement.”

The US-backed coalition, which accuses Houthis of being proxies to Iran, has come under heavy international pressure to investigate the bombing. The Human Rights Watch rights group said in a report Thursday that the bombing constitutes an apparent war crime and said remnants of a US-made bomb were found at the site of the strikes.

Along with arms, the United States provides the coalition with logistical support and mid-air refueling of its warplanes and has faced a backlash after the bombing. The White House said it will immediately review its assistance to the Saudi-led coalition and that such assistance is not a “blank check.”

The coalition’s bombing of the hall is not the first attack on civilians by warplanes. Over the past year, busy markets, weddings, schools, and hospitals have been bombed, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries. </s> Saudi-led airstrike at Yemen wedding killed at least 20

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition hit a wedding party in northern Yemen, killing at least 20 people including the bride, health officials said Monday, as harrowing images emerged on social media of the deadly bombing, the third to hit Yemeni civilians since the weekend.

Khaled al-Nadhri, the top health official in the northern province of Hajja, told The Associated Press that most of the dead were women and children who were gathered in one of the tents set up for the wedding party in the Bani Qayis district. He said the bride was also among the dead.

A Saudi-led coalition has been battling Iran-allied Shiite rebels known as Houthis since 2015 in a stalemated war that has killed more than 10,000 people.

Later Monday, the rebels said the official considered the head of state for the territories under their control was killed in a coalition airstrike. The rebels' Supreme Political Council said Saleh al-Samad was killed in the coastal Hodeida province on Thursday.

"We consider the so-called forces of aggression, especially America and Saudi Arabia, responsible for killing of Samad and all the consequences of this crime," Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, the leader of the rebels, said.

He said Samad was killed on a road with six companions after meeting with local officials. Mahdi al-Mashat, a former fighter who until now directed al-Houthi's office, was elected as a successor.

After the wedding strike, which took place late Sunday, the groom and 45 of the wounded were brought to the al-Jomhouri hospital, said the facility's manager, Mohammed al-Sawmali. Health authorities called on people to donate blood.

Ali Nasser al-Azib, deputy head of the hospital, said 30 children were among the wounded, some in critical condition with shrapnel wounds and severed limbs.

Footage that emerged from the scene of the airstrike shows scattered body parts and a young boy in a green shirt hugging a man's lifeless body, screaming and crying.

Health ministry spokesman Abdel-Hakim al-Kahlan said ambulances were initially unable to reach the site of the bombing for fear of subsequent airstrikes as the jets continued to fly overhead.

It was the third deadly airstrike in Yemen since the weekend. An airstrike on Sunday night hit a house elsewhere in Hajja, killing an entire family of five, according to al-Nadhri.

On Saturday, at least 20 civilians were killed when coalition fighter jets bombed a bus carrying commuters in western Yemen, near the city of Taiz, which has been locked in fighting for three years.

The Saudi-led coalition has declined to comment on the strikes.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the airstrikes on the wedding party and on civilian vehicles in Taiz and reminded all parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians in armed conflict, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday.

The U.N. chief called for "a prompt, effective and transparent investigation," Dujarric said.

According to the independent monitor Yemen Data Project, a third of the 16,847 airstrikes since the war started have hit non-military targets.

Over the past three years, more than 10,000 civilians have been killed and tens of thousands wounded, while over 3 million people have been displaced because of the fighting.

U.N. officials and rights groups have accused the coalition of committing war crimes and of being responsible for most of the killings. Airstrikes have hit weddings, busy markets, hospitals, and schools.

The Saudi-led coalition blames the Houthis, saying they are using civilians as human shields and hiding among the civilian population. The United States and European countries have also been criticized and accused of complicity in the coalition's attacks in Yemen because of their support for the alliance. They are supplying the coalition with weapons worth billions of dollars.

Saudi Arabia meanwhile has faced a flurry of attacks by the Houthis, with the kingdom's defense forces saying they have intercepted missiles targeting the capital, Riyadh, and other cities, including two on Monday.

The Saudi Air Defense force said in a statement that it destroyed ballistic missiles in flight that had been fired into the Jizan region on the border from inside Yemen, without causing any damage. Houthi-run media said the rebels targeted an oil facility. </s> SANAA, Yemen -- An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition hit a wedding party in northern Yemen, killing at least 20 people, health officials said Monday, as harrowing images emerged on social media of the deadly bombing, the third to hit Yemeni civilians since the weekend.

Khaled al-Nadhri, the top health official in the northern province of Hajja, said most of the dead were women and children who were gathered in one of the tents set up for the wedding party in the Bani Qayis district. He said the bride was among the dead.

The Saudi-led coalition has been battling Iran-allied Shiite rebels known as Houthis since 2015 in a stalemated war that has killed more than 10,000 people.

Later Monday, the rebels said the official considered the head of state for the territories under their control was killed in a coalition airstrike. The rebels' Supreme Political Council said Saleh al-Samad was killed in the coastal Hodeida province on Thursday.

"We consider the so-called forces of aggression, especially America and Saudi Arabia, responsible for killing of Samad and all the consequences of this crime," Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, the leader of the rebels, said.

After the wedding strike, which took place late Sunday, the groom and 45 of the wounded were taken to the al-Jomhouri hospital, said the facility's manager, Mohammed al-Sawmali. Health authorities called on people to donate blood.

Ali Nasser al-Azib, deputy head of the hospital, said 30 children were among the injured, some in critical condition with shrapnel wounds and severed limbs.

Health Ministry spokesman Abdel-Hakim al-Kahlan said ambulances were initially unable to reach the site of the bombing for fear of subsequent airstrikes as the jets continued to fly overhead.

An airstrike on Sunday night hit a house elsewhere in Hajja, killing an entire family of five, according to al-Nadhri.

On Saturday, at least 20 civilians were killed when coalition fighter jets bombed a bus carrying commuters in western Yemen, near the city of Taiz, which has been locked in fighting for three years.

The Saudi-led coalition has declined to comment on the strikes.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the airstrikes on the wedding party and on civilian vehicles in Taiz and reminded all parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians in armed conflict, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday.

The U.N. chief called for "a prompt, effective and transparent investigation," Dujarric said.

According to the independent monitor Yemen Data Project, a third of the 16,847 airstrikes since the war started have hit nonmilitary targets.

Over the past three years, more than 10,000 civilians have been killed and tens of thousands wounded, while over 3 million people have been displaced because of the fighting.

U.N. officials and rights groups have accused the coalition of committing war crimes and of being responsible for most of the killings. Airstrikes have hit weddings, busy markets, hospitals, and schools.

The Saudi-led coalition blames the Houthis, saying they are using civilians as human shields and hiding among the civilian population. The United States and European countries have also been criticized and accused of complicity in the coalition's attacks in Yemen because of their support for the alliance. They are supplying the coalition with weapons worth billions of dollars.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has faced a flurry of attacks by the Houthis, with the kingdom's defense forces saying they have intercepted missiles targeting the capital, Riyadh, and other cities, including two on Monday.

The Saudi Air Defense force said in a statement that it destroyed ballistic missiles in flight that had been fired into the Jizan region on the border from inside Yemen, without causing any damage. Houthi-run media said the rebels targeted an oil facility. </s> Sanaa: At least 25 people were killed in a Saudi-led coalition airstrike which saw a warplane bomb a popular market in Yemen's northern province of Saada, media reported on Sunday.

The airstrike happened on Saturday evening and targeted al-Mashnak popular market at the centre of Shada district in Saada, Xinhua quoted a Saba news agency report — which cited an official — as saying.

The official said the victims were customers and owners of commercial shops. A number of others were critically injured.

The agency gave no further details, but said it will publish pictures of the scene later on Sunday.

Saada is the main stronghold of Shiite Houthi movement and where the group's leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi is based.

This is the latest in a series of airstrikes hitting Yemeni civilians since the war began in March 2015.

Ten days ago, four members of a family were killed when Saudi-led coalition warplanes hit a house in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, according to residents and medics.

Since March 2015, the coalition has been fighting the dominant Houthi rebels, who have seized control of most of northern Yemen, including Sanaa, to restore power to the internationally recognized yet expelled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The war has killed more than 10,000 people, half of them civilians, and displaced over two million others, according to the United Nations' humanitarian agencies. </s> SANAA, Yemen (AP) — The deputy chief of staff of Yemen’s military has been killed by a rocket fired by Houthi rebels that struck his vehicle in the Red Sea port of Mokha.

Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Abdu Dagher expressed condolences on Twitter after Brig. Gen. Ahmed Seif al-Yafie was killed Wednesday, saying the “end of the enemy is near.”

The SABA news agency, which is controlled by the Houthis, said the rebels had deliberated attacked the general’s vehicle.

Al-Yafie was loyal to the internationally recognized government, which has been battling the rebels and allied army units since 2015. A Saudi-led coalition launched an air and ground campaign in support of the government that year, but the rebels are still in control of the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen. </s> SANAA (Reuters) - Saudi-led warplanes struck a funeral at a community hall in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, the country’s Houthi-run administration said on Saturday, but the coalition denied any role in the attack. More than 140 mourners were killed, according to local health officials cited by the United Nations, in an attack that prompted a strong rebuke from Washington, a key Saudi ally.

Jamie McGoldrick, a UN official in charge of humanitarian efforts in the country, said more than 525 were injured.

The death toll was 82, according to Ghazi Ismail, the administration’s acting health minister. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers was not immediately clear.

Ismail said the air strike occurred in the southern part of the city, where a wake was taking place for the father of the administration’s interior minister, Jalal al-Roweishan, who had died of natural causes on Friday.

The death toll was one of the largest in any single incident since the Saudi-led alliance began military operations to try to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power following his ousting by the Iran-aligned Houthis in March 2015.

“The Saudi aggression committed a major crime today, by attacking a mourning hall for the al-Roweishan family, targeting residents in the hall,” Ismail told a news conference in Sanaa.

In a strongly worded rebuke, the White House said it may consider cutting its support to the Saudi-led military campaign.

“U.S. security cooperation with Saudi Arabia is not a blank check,” said U.S. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price in a statement. “In light of this and other recent incidents, we have initiated an immediate review of our already significantly reduced support to the Saudi-led coalition and are prepared to adjust our support so as to better align with U.S. principles, values and interests, including achieving an immediate and durable end to Yemen’s tragic conflict.”

Sources in the Saudi-led coalition said there was no Arab coalition air role in the strike.

“Absolutely no such operation took place at that target,” one of the sources said, citing what he described as confirmation from the coalition air force command.

“The coalition is aware of such reports and is certain that it is possible that other causes of bombing are to be considered. The coalition has in the past avoided such gatherings and (they have) never been a subject of targets.”

The Saudi-led coalition has been providing air support for Hadi’s forces in a civil war that has killed more than 10,000 people since March 2015 and displaced more than three million.

Fighting has intensified since August when U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait ended without an agreement.

Iran, Saudi Arabia’s main regional rival, described the attack as “a horrific and inhuman crime”, and called for the resumption of peace talks among all Yemeni parties.

People stand at the site of an airstrike which witnesses said was by Saudi-led coalition aircraft on mourners at a hall where a wake for the father of Jalal al-Roweishan, the interior minister in the Houthi-dominated Yemeni government, was being held, in Sanaa, Yemen October 8, 2016. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

“To resolve the crisis in Yemen there is no solution but the end of aggression by the brutish Saudi rulers and start of new round of talks that includes all Yemeni sides,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.

SCENE OF CARNAGE

Residents said aircraft fired two missiles at the hall, where hundreds of mourners had gathered to offer condolences.

One missile tore through the building, setting it on fire and sending a large plume of smoke above the area. The other landed nearby.

Witnesses described a scene of carnage, with charred or mutilated bodies strewn around. Ambulances raced to carry the wounded to hospitals, which sent out urgent appeals for blood.

A spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi group condemned the strike as an act of savagery.

“The aggression continues to shed blood in an uncommon savagery and with international collusion that reaches the level of direct participation,” the Houthi-run Saba news agency quoted the group’s spokesman, Mohammed Abdul-Salam, as saying in a statement.

At least two local officials were among the dead. It was not immediately clear if Roweishan was in the hall when the strike happened.

Slideshow (18 Images)

Roweishan had sided with the Iran-aligned Houthi movement when President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi fled Yemen after the Houthis advanced on his headquarters in the southern port city of Aden in March 2015.

The Saudi-led coalition had been blamed for several attacks on medical centers, including some run by international aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), schools, factories and homes in the past 18 months that has killed scores of civilians.

In August, MSF said it was evacuating its staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen after a coalition air strike hit a health facility operated by the group killing 19 people.

The coalition, which says it does not target civilians, has expressed deep regret over the decision and said it was trying to set up “urgent meetings” with the medical aid group. </s> Hajja, which is located in northwestern Yemen, is under the control of Houthi rebels.

At least 17 of the 33 people killed in the airstrikes that hit the wedding celebrations were women and children, according to official sources.

A family of five were killed in a separate strike in the same province, according to Alkhulani.

A young boy clings to his unconscious father's body after the airstrikes that hit a wedding celebration. The Saudi-led coalition, which has conducted a three-year military campaign against the Houthis, has not commented on the strike on the gas station. But spokesman Col. Turki al-Maliki said the coalition was investigating reports that its jets targeted a wedding on Sunday. Al-Maliki said in a statement that coalition forces follow international rules of engagement, "primarily the assumption that every person in Yemen is a civilian until proven otherwise." Houthi rebels retaliated for the recent airstrikes by firing two missiles at a Saudi oil port on Monday, a senior official at the Houthi-controlled defense ministry told CNN. The missiles were intercepted over the coastal city of Jazan, according to the coalition. The Hajja attacks come days after coalition airstrikes killed the Houthi rebels' top political leader Saleh al-Sammad. He was killed on Thursday in the al-Hodeidah region, Houthi-controlled media outlets said Monday. Saleh al-Sammad, who headed the Huthis' political wing, was killed on Thursday, according to Houthi-controlled media outlets. The Yemen war began in early 2015, when Houthi rebels drove the US-backed government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. Saudi-led coalition airstrikes are behind 61% of all civilian casualties in Yemen's war, according to the United Nations human rights office. Indiscriminate shelling and sniper fire by Houthi rebels in heavily populated areas accounted for most of the remaining dead and wounded, a UN statement added. Earlier this month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres dubbed Yemen's war the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 22 million people -- three quarters of the population -- in desperate need of aid and protection.
A Saudi-led coalition airstrike kills Yemen's Supreme Political Council president Saleh Ali al-Sammad. He was considered the most senior Houthi official in Sana'a.