Oman plane to evacuate 115 wounded

An Omani aircraft landed in the rebel-held Yemeni capital on Saturday to evacuate 115 of the most seriously wounded from a Saudi-led coalition strike on a funeral last weekend, a rebel official said.

The strike killed more than 140 people and wounded at least 525, sparking an international outcry that prompted the coalition to announce an easing of an air blockade to allow the most seriously wounded to receive treatment abroad.

Oman is the only Gulf Arab state that is not part of the coalition fighting the Huthi rebels and has previously organised evacuations from Sanaa of Westerners and others who had been detained by the insurgents.

The Omani aircraft also flew home to Sanaa the rebel negotiating team which had been stranded in the sultanate's capital Muscat since the collapse of UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait in August because of the air blockade, an AFP photographer reported.

The relief flight came as the coalition released the findings of an investigation into the October 8 air strike on the funeral ceremony for the father of a senior rebel official.

It found that a coalition aircraft had "wrongly targeted" the ceremony based on "incorrect information" and announced disciplinary proceedings against those responsible and a review of procedures.

Source: AFP