Earlier this month, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the Saudi-led coalition of war crimes following an airstrike on a funeral in Yemen. On October 8, at least two air-dropped munitions penetrated the roof of a hall containing over 1,000 mourners during the funeral ceremony of Ali al-Rawishan, the father of the Sana'a-based administration's interior minister, Jalal al-Rawishan. At least 140 people were killed and 610 wounded.
"After unlawfully attacking schools, markets, hospitals, weddings, and homes over the last 19 months, the Saudi-led coalition has now added a funeral to its ever-increasing list of abuses," Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's Middle East and North Africa director, said.
After interviewing survivors of the tragedy and examining information relating to the strike, the New York-based organization concluded that the Saudi strike was a deliberate action -- first of all, because the funeral service, which was attended by over 1,000 mourners, was made public ahead of time via a Facebook post.
In addition to the Saudis, HRW said that the US and the UK are indirectly complicit in the deaths of civilians in the strike, and the overall severity of casualties in the 19-month long civil war in Yemen.
According to HRW's record, since the beginning of the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen (which began on March 26, 2015), the Saudi coalition, with direct military support from the US and assistance from the UK, have conducted at least 58 "unlawful airstrikes."
The HRW has repeatedly criticized the coalition's use of US and UK-produced weapons, including cluster munition in Yemen. Yet despite calls by US officials to review its support for its Middle Eastern ally, the HRW noted that the US continues to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, approving more than $20 billion in military sales in 2015 alone.
Attack on Kaaba, Islam's holiest place
Going back to the Saudi claim of Houthi's missile attack on Mecca where Islam's holiest place is located, it will be instructive to relate the real attacks on Kaaba in the past.
The Kaaba has been repaired and reconstructed many times since Prophet Muhammad's time. The structure was severely damaged by fire in October 683, during the first siege of Mecca in the war between the Umayyads and Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr, who ruled Mecca for many years between the death of Ali Ben Talib (the fourth caliph) and the consolidation of Umayyad power.
The Kaaba was bombarded with stones in the second siege of Mecca in 692, in which the Umayyad army was led by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. The fall of the city and the death of Ibn al-Zubayr allowed the Umayyads under Ê Abdu l-Malik ibn Marwan to finally reunite all the Islamic possessions and end the long civil war.
During the Hajj of 930, the Qarmatians attacked Mecca, defiled the Zamzam Well with the bodies of pilgrims and stole the Black Stone, taking it to the oasis region of Eastern Arabia known as al-Aa' sÄ Ê , where it remained until the Abbasids ransomed it in 952.
In recent history, the Kaaba seizure occurred during November and December 1979 when insurgents calling for the overthrow of the House of Saud took over the Kaaba. The insurgents declared that the Mahdi (the "redeemer of Islam") had arrived in the form of one of their leaders -- Mohammed Abdullah al-Qahtani -- and called on Muslims to obey him. Al-Qahtani was killed in the recapture of the Kaaba, which is also known as the Grand Mosque.
Soon after the rebel seizure, about a hundred security officers of the Ministry of Interior attempted to retake the mosque, but were turned back with heavy casualties. The survivors were quickly joined by units of the Saudi Arabian Army and Saudi Arabian National Guard.
According to Lawrence Wright in the book The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, a team of three French commandos from the Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale (GIGN) arrived in Mecca. The commandos pumped gas into the underground chambers. More than two weeks after the assault began, the surviving rebels finally surrendered.
However, this account is contradicted by at other accounts, including that of then GIGN commanding officer Christian Prouteau: the three GIGN commandos trained and equipped the Saudi forces and devised their attack plan but did not take part in the action and did not set foot in the Mosque. He claims that Pakistani SSG commandos carried out the operation instead.
The Kaaba seizure was led by Juhayman al-Otaybi, a member of an influential family in Najd. Juhayman and 67 of his fellow rebels, who survived the assault, were captured and later beheaded. [Wikipedia]
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