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Airwars Assessment
Two civilians were injured by an alleged US-UK strike on the Sofan neighborhood of Sana’a on February 24, 2024.
Abdullah Ahmad Obaidi Al Rabi’i posted on Facebook that “on my way back home in the Sofan neighborhood, I encountered this missile strike by the American-British aggression occurring dozens of meters away in a densely populated residential neighborhood.”
According to @alharthalafari, the strike hit an insecticide factory which led to a fire and “civilian casualties”. Anadolu Agency quoted the Ministry of Public Health and Population of the unrecognized Houthi government who announced that “two civilians were injured as a result of the raids of the (American-British) aggression on the Al-Nahda neighborhood in the capital, Sana’a.” Yemen Data Project provided a similar casualty toll of two civilians injured.
US Central Command released a statement that “at approximately 11:45 p.m. (Sanaa Yemen time), U.S. Central Command forces alongside UK Armed Forces, and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, conducted strikes against 18 Houthi targets in Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist-controlled areas of Yemen….The targets included Houthi underground weapons storage facilities, missile storage facilities, one- way attack unmanned aerial systems, air defense systems, radars, and a helicopter.”
The UK Ministry of Defence announced: “Four Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s, supported by two Voyager tankers, again participated in a deliberate coalition strike on Saturday 24 February against Houthi military facilities in Yemen which had been conducting missile and drone attacks on commercial shipping and coalition naval forces in the Bab al Mandab, southern Red Sea, and Gulf of Aden. The RAF aircraft were allocated multiple targets located at two sites. Intelligence analysis had successfully identified several very long-range drones, used by the Houthis for both reconnaissance and attack missions, at a former surface-to-air missile battery site several miles north-east of Sanaa. Our aircraft used Paveway IV precision guided bombs against the drones and their launchers, notwithstanding the Houthis’ use of the old missile battery revetments to try to protect the drones.”
It is unclear if the US and/or UK statements are the same strikes which hit the Sofan neighborhood as the US and UK military did not provide a location.
Key Information
Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention the neighbourhood of Sofan (سوفان) to the north of Sana’a (صَنْعَاء). Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to find boundaries for the neighbourhood and to verify the location further. The generic coordinates for Sofan are: 15.399286, 44.194547.