Attack on migrant boat off Yemen coast ‘kills 31’

A number of Somali refugees were killed when their boat was hit in an air strike off the coast of Yemen, the UN says, the BBC reports.

At least 31 people died in the incident, news agencies reported, quoting officials in Hudaydah port.

Women and children were among those killed when the vessel was attacked near the Bab al-Mandeb strait, the port officials said.

Images from the scene showed a boat strewn with bodies.

The refugees were on their way from Yemen to Sudan when they were attacked by an Apache helicopter near the strait, coastguard Mohamed al-Alay told Reuters.

It was not clear who carried out the attack. The port is controlled by Houthi rebels who are fighting a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen’s two-year war.

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS