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Saudi-led coalition launched Yemen funeral strike due to 'inaccurate information'

Report admits that coalition launched deadly strike based on faulty intelligence from Yemeni military officials
Breaking news from MEE
Par MEE staff

A report by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said inaccurate information led it to launch an air strike that killed over 140 people at a funeral in the capital Sanaa last Sunday.

The Joint Investigations Action Team (JIAT), which is made up of 14 military and legal experts from members of the Saudi-led coalition, delivered its final report into the incident on Saturday morning. 

According to the report, the air strike was launched based on intelligence that said there were armed Houthi leaders attending the funeral. 

"The intelligence was supplied by a body affiliated to the Yemeni chief of staff," the report said.

The report urged members of the coalition to review their rules of engagement in the campaign.

It also accused some of "exploiting the incident" to increase the death toll, which officially stands at over 140.

Saudi Arabia, which hosts the operations room for the coalition, had previously denied that its warplanes launched any strikes in the area at the time of the bombing.

Leading Saudi commentators had suggested that the deaths at the funeral could have been the result of a "conspiracy" by a faction within the Houthi rebels to eliminate internal enemies.

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