At least 65 people, including 10 children, died and dozens were wounded during 30 minutes starting from 9:30 p.m. of July 24 when war jets repeatedly struck two residential compounds housing workers at a steam power plant and their families, the New York-based group said on Monday.
"The Saudi-led coalition repeatedly bombed company housing with fatal results for several dozen civilians," said Ole Solvang, senior emergencies researcher. "With no evident military target, this attack appears to be a war crime."
He called for United Nations Human Rights Council to create a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of laws-of-war violations in Yemen.
Human Rights Watch visited the area of the attack a day-and-a-half later. "Craters and building damage showed that six bombs had struck the plant's main residential compound, which housed at least 200 families, according to the plant's managers. One bomb had struck a separate compound for short-term workers about a kilometer north of the main compound, destroying the water tank for the compounds, and two bombs had struck the beach and an intersection nearby," the organization said.
Bombs hit two apartment buildings directly, collapsing part of their roofs. Other bombs exploded between the buildings, including in the main courtyard, stripping the exterior walls off dozens of apartments, leaving only the load-bearing pillars standing.
The organization said that it saw "no signs that either of the two residential compounds for the power plants were being used for military purposes."
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