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STORY: YEMEN / AL ASHEERAH ATTACK
TRT: 1:53
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
DATELINE: 21 JULY 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, external shot, Palais des Nations Flag Alley, Geneva
2. Wide shot, Press conference
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN human rights office (OHCHR):
“According to witnesses who fled the area and were interviewed by one of our monitors in Yemen, the airstrike destroyed a makeshift house which was made of straw or some similar type of material, killing all three families who were inside it at the time. At least 18 civilians in all, including 10 children and two women, are believed to have died in the incident.”
4. Cutaway, journalist
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN human rights office OHCHR:
“The three families had been recorded by our office in Yemen as displaced, along with three others, from their homes in a different village nearby three months ago, as a result of other airstrikes, and they’d set up four rough shelters in an open area in Al Asheerah.”
6 Cutaway, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN human rights office OHCHR:
“As far as we can tell it is pretty clear, there were aircraft heard over the village just before and then the house was destroyed. But as I said the monitor hasn’t been actually able to go to the ground, we haven’t been able to see the munitions and so-on and so-forth. So definitive is maybe a bit too strong, but sharp observation here, we don’t qualify the question, and there’s no other planes operating. So when it’s pretty clearly an airstrike then it’s pretty clearly the Coalition.”
8. Cutaway, journalist
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN human rights office OHCHR:
“We’re talking now still around two-thirds of the casualties being caused by the Coalition, as far as our investigations reveal, one-quarter caused by the Houthis, mainly through shelling and mortar and so-on."
10. Close up, typing on laptop
11. Wide shot, camera and podium in distance
12. Wide shot, press room.
An airstrike in Yemen has left at least 18 civilians dead, including two women and ten children, after targeting a “makeshift house of straw”, according to the the United Nations human rights office (OHCHR).
Briefing reporters in Geneva Friday (21 Jul) the OHCHR said that “it’s pretty clearly” Arab Coalition Forces were responsible for the attack in the village of Al Asheerah village in Taizz Governorate on Tuesday (18 Jul).
Yemen has been ripped apart by fighting between Coalition forces loyal to internationally recognised president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Houthi rebels, who back former head of state Ali Abdullah Saleh.
OHCHR spokesperson Rupert Colville said that the victims had been displaced from a nearby village by other airstrikes three months ago.
He said “according to witnesses who fled the area and were interviewed by one of our monitors, the airstrike destroyed a makeshift house made of straw, killing all three families who were inside it at the time. At least 18 civilians in all, including ten children and two women, are believed to have died in the incident.”
It remains unclear why the latest attack took place, as Al Asheerah is some eight kilometres from a military camp, where clashes have been reported.
Colville told journalists in Geneva that “there do not appear to have been any military objectives anywhere in the immediate vicinity of the destroyed house”.
He added that witnesses indicated that planes were heard before attack.
Colville said “as far as we can tell it’s pretty clear, there were aircraft heard over the village just before and then the house was destroyed. But as I said the monitor hasn’t been actually able to go to the ground, we haven’t been able to see the munitions and so-on and so-forth. So definitive is maybe a bit too strong, but sharp observation here, we don’t qualify the question, and there’s no other planes operating. So when it’s pretty clearly an airstrike then it’s pretty clearly the Coalition.”
Since March 2015, OHCHR has documented more than 13,000 civilian casualties, including 5,021 fatalities.
Spokesperson added that the UN office believes that two-thirds of all casualties were caused by the Coalition and one-quarter by the Houthis, “mainly through shelling and mortar".
