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14 April 2015

As the War Escalates, Yemen Risks Disintegration, With No End in Sight

April 10, 2015 

‘‘My family is completely destroyed, we have no more hope in life.’’

Yemenis stand amid the rubble of houses destroyed by Saudi-led airstrikes in a village near Sana, Yemen, Saturday, April 4, 2015.
The al-Amari family was asleep in their home in Yarim, a town some 80 miles south of the Yemeni capital, when the airstrike hit, killing six of them. It was March 31, nearly a week into the air offensive launched by Saudi Arabia against Houthi rebels in Yemen. At around 2:30 AM, a missile crashed into a gas tanker, witnesses said, turning the street into an inferno that lit up the night sky and burned residents alive.

“I saw horrific things,” said Mohamed Abdu Hameed al-Amari, at 32 the eldest of his siblings, and the family’s main provider. He was returning home from a late-night errand when the bomb hit.

His two brothers, their wives, his 5-year-old daughter, Hanan, and his one-and-a-half year-old niece, Emada, were all killed in the blaze.

“To see your brother, your daughter, your son burning in front of your eyes,” Mohamed said. “It was the blackest day in history.”

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