Yemen: Mother’s heartbreak at three children killed while playing – as families camp out in bombed-out buildings in divided city
Two pickup trucks with half a dozen heavily armed men on board escort us on the journey into the besieged city of Taiz.
They stay with us the entire three days we are inside the city. The talk may be increasingly of potential peace in Yemen but the war has never stopped in Taiz.
The city is split in two with Houthi militia controlling one half and government troops holding the other side.
We have to go through nearly 30 armed checkpoints between the port city of Aden and Yemen’s third-largest city. It’s a distance of 200km (125 miles) and in the days before the war, the journey used to take about two hours, sometimes less.
Alex Crawford (R) in Taiz, Yemen
Now, most roads are cut off by fighting, insecurity or territorial gains.
The city is reachable only through dusty, rocky paths which wind along some treacherous mountainsides.
And the journey means crossing territory held not just by government troops but also by different separatist groups who’re fighting for independence.
There are still small pockets of Islamic extremists but they’ve been largely neutered in this grinding conflict which has evolved into a regional proxy war, fuelled by Saudi Arabia supporting the internationally-recognised government and Iran which has been backing and arming the Houthi militia.
Right now, the journey can take six hours and many traders talk of having to pay “fines” at the multiple checkpoints as they transport much-needed supplies into Taiz. It’s made the journey both dangerous and expensive.
The siege imposed by the opposing Houthi militia has resulted in a slow choking torture for those civilians left in the city.
They struggle for food, find water, and to make any sort of living. We find several families camping in abandoned, bombed buildings near the frontline dividing the two opposing groups simply because it was “rent-free”.
One father called Mohammed tells us he’d had three children born during the siege while living in the basement of a bombed-out former shopping centre.
“Of course, I worry about their safety,” he says. “It’s not safe here. But I try to keep them inside as much as possible and tell them not to go out when we hear the explosions and shelling.”
Mohammed had three children during the siege
Mohammed fears for his children’s safety
Many of the homes are incubators for rockets and shells which have embedded themselves in the buildings but not yet detonated.
They all tell us of their fear of Houthi snipers who position themselves on high-rise buildings and pick off civilians including children and pensioners.
‘I will never leave my home’
We find Qabool Ahmed Ali, who says she is about 70 years old, in a hospital with a sniper bullet wound in her back. The bullet had exited her arm.
“I refuse to be pushed out of my home,” she tells us about her house near the frontline. “The Houthis kept shouting to me ‘why you still here you crazy woman?’, but I will never leave my home.”
Qabool Ahmed Ali, 70, was shot in the back
Some of those still there hang sheets and blankets up between their houses to try to obscure the snipers’ view as they move from home to street. And they’ve piled sand down certain streets to stop vehicles moving and attracting gunfire.
It’s dangerous, high stakes living in Taiz and with the enemies only a few hundred metres apart, there’s been constant if sporadic engagement between the two sides despite nationwide agreed truces and a lull in fighting for the best part of a year.
We see fighters moving around on motorbikes with their weapons slung over their shoulders.
‘We want peace,” 23-year-old Khalid Ali tells us. “It’s they [the Houthis] who don’t. They kill innocent people, even children, so we keep our weapons to defend ourselves.”
And there are tragically repetitive tales of children and families hit by random shells fired indiscriminately and without warning.
Children killed while playing outside
Fatima – who is a mother of nine – is beside herself with grief as she shows us the photographs of what happened to four of her children the day they were caught up in a shelling. The images of her dead and mutilated children are all she has left of them.
Fatima is grieving for four of her children who were killed by shelling
They are horrifying pictures showing how their young bodies were ripped apart by the explosion. Four of them were hit while playing together outside their home. The eldest, Leila, was around 12. She, her brothers Hameed, who was 10, and seven-year-old Mahmoud were killed outright.
Three-year-old Hamid survived but his left leg was amputated and he’s still receiving treatment in Jordan with his father by his side. Their youngest, two-year-old Malak, picks up the photographs as her mother is talking to us and beckons to her saying “Mahmoud! It’s Mahmoud”.
Graphic photos of her dead and mutilated children are Fatima has left of them
Malak, two, eats bread from the day before
Her mother responds through sobs. “Mahmoud is not coming back habibbi [my love]. He’s gone now,” she says.
Fatima has compiled a file to try to document what happened to her children. She wants justice.
“I want whoever did this to pay for what they did to my children. They were just children, just children. What did they do to deserve this?”
Alex Crawford reports from Taiz in Yemen with Sky Middle East editor Zein Ja’Far, cameraman Jake Britton and producer Ahmed Baider.
World
US announces it will increase steps to limit revenue of Venezuelan president Maduro – as he begins third term
The US has announced it has increased its reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
In a statement on Friday, the US treasury said up to $25m is being offered for information leading to the arrest of Mr Maduro and his named interior minister Diosdado Cabello.
Up to $15m is also being offered for information on the incoming defence minister Vladimir Padrino. Further sanctions have also been introduced against the South American country’s state-owned oil company and airline.
The reward was announced as Mr Maduro was sworn in for a third successive term as the Venezuelan president, following a disputed election win last year.
Sanctions from the US, UK and EU came as Maduro was sworn in for a third term as president. Pic: Reuters
Elvis Amoroso, head of the National Electoral Council, said at the time Mr Maduro had secured 51% of the vote, beating his opponent Edmundo Gonzalez, who won 44%.
But while Venezuela’s electoral authority and top court declared him the winner, tallies confirming Mr Maduro’s win were never released. The country’s opposition also insists that ballot box level tallies show Mr Gonzalez won in a landslide.
Nationwide protests broke out over the dispute, with a brawl erupting in the capital Caracas when dozens of police in riot gear blocked the demonstrations and officers used tear gas to disperse them.
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From July 2024: Protests after Venezuela election results
More than 2,000 demonstrators were arrested, and Mr Gonzalez fled to Spain to seek asylum in September.
While being sworn in at the national assembly, Mr Maduro said: “May this new presidential term be a period of peace, of prosperity, of equality and the new democracy.”
He also accused the opposition of attempting to turn the inauguration into a “world war,” adding: “I have not been made president by the government of the United States, nor by the pro-imperialist governments of Latin America.”
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The UK and EU have also introduced new sanctions against Venezuelan officials – including the president of Venezuela’s supreme court Caryslia Beatriz Rodriguez Rodriguez and the director of its criminal investigations department Asdrubal Jose Brito Hernandez.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Mr Maduro’s “claim to power is fraudulent” and that last year’s election “was neither free nor fair”.
“The UK will not stand by as Maduro continues to oppress, undermine democracy, and commit appalling human rights violations,” he added.
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Mr Maduro and his government have always rejected international sanctions as illegitimate measures that amount to an “economic war” designed to cripple Venezuela.
Those targeted by the UK’s sanctions will face travel bans and asset freezes, preventing them from entering the country and holding funds or economic resources.
World
Donald Trump says he’s ‘totally innocent’ and thanks judge moments before no-penalty sentence in hush money case
Donald Trump has been handed a no-penalty sentence following his conviction in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
The incoming US president has received an unconditional discharge – meaning he will not face jail time, probation or a fine.
Manhattan Judge Juan M Merchan could have jailed him for up to four years.
The sentencing in Manhattan comes just 10 days before the 78-year-old is due to be inaugurated as US president for a second time on 20 January.
Trump appeared at the hearing by video link and addressed the court before he was sentenced, telling the judge the case had been a “very terrible experience” for him.
He claimed it was handled inappropriately and by someone connected with his political opponents – referring to Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg.
As it happened:
Trump sentenced in Manhattan court
Trump said: “It was done to damage my reputation so I would lose the election.
“This has been a political witch hunt.
“I am totally innocent. I did nothing wrong.”
Concluding his statement, he said: “I was treated very unfairly and I thank you very much.”
The judge then told the court it was up to him to “decide what is a just conclusion with a verdict of guilty”.
He said: “Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances.
“This has been a truly extraordinary case.”
He added that the “trial was a bit of a paradox” because “once the doors closed it was not unique”.
Pic: Reuters
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass had earlier argued in court that Trump “engaged in a campaign to undermine the rule of law” during the trial.
“He’s been unrelenting in his attacks against this court, prosecutors and their family,” Mr Steinglass said.
“His dangerous rhetoric and unconstitutional conduct has been a direct attack on the rule of law and he has publicly threatened to retaliate against the prosecutors.”
Mr Steinglass said this behaviour was “designed to have a chilling effect and to intimidate”.
It comes after the US Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch attempt by Trump to delay sentencing in the case on Thursday.
Trump’s lawyers argued that evidence used during the trial violated last summer’s Supreme Court ruling giving Trump broad immunity from prosecution over acts he took as president.
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Trump appeared via videolink with his attorney Todd Blanche. Pic: Reuters
Trump’s hush money conviction in May 2024 means he will become the first person convicted of a felony to assume the US presidency.
He was found guilty in New York of 34 counts of falsifying business records relating to payments made to Ms Daniels, an adult film actor, before he won the 2016 US election.
Prosecutors claimed he had paid her $130,000 (£105,300) in hush money to not reveal details of what Ms Daniels said was a sexual relationship in 2006.
Trump has denied any liaison with Ms Daniels or any wrongdoing.
The trial made headlines around the world but the details of the case or Trump’s conviction didn’t deter American voters from picking him as president for a second time.
Trump appears in court during his trial. Pic: AP
What is an unconditional discharge?
Under New York state law, an unconditional discharge is a sentence imposed “without imprisonment, fine or probation supervision”.
The sentence is handed down when a judge is “of the opinion that no proper purpose would be served by imposing any condition upon the defendant’s release”, according to the law.
It means Trump’s hush money case has been resolved without any punishment that could interfere with his return to the White House.
Unconditional discharges have been handed down in previous cases where, like Trump, people have been convicted of falsifying business records.
They have also been applied in relation to low-level offences such as speeding, trespassing and marijuana-related convictions.
World
Family of Leicester City chairman killed in football stadium helicopter crash sue manufacturer for £2bn
Leicester City’s owners have launched a landmark lawsuit against a helicopter manufacturer following the club chairman’s death in a crash in 2018.
Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s family are suing Italian company Leonardo SpA for £2.15bn after the 60-year-old chairman and four others were killed when their helicopter crashed just outside the King Power Stadium in October 2018.
The lawsuit is the largest fatal accident claim in English history, according to the family’s lawyers. They are asking for compensation for the loss of earnings and other damages, as a result of the billionaire’s death.
The legal action comes more than six years after the fatal crash and as an inquest into the death of the 60-year-old chairman and his fellow passengers is set to begin on Monday.
Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha celebrating after Leicester City won the Premier League in 2016. Pic: AP
Mr Srivaddhanaprabha’s son Khun Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, who took over as the club’s chairman, said: “My family feels the loss of my father as much today as we ever have done.
“That my own children, and their cousins will never know their grandfather compounds our suffering… My father trusted Leonardo when he bought that helicopter but the conclusions of the report into his death show that his trust was fatally misplaced. I hold them wholly responsible for his death.”
The late Mr Srivaddhanaprabha’s company, King Power, was earning more than £2.5bn in revenue per year, according to his family’s lawyers. The lawsuit claims “that success was driven by Khun Vichai’s vision, drive, relationships, entrepreneurism, ingenuity and reputation.”
“All of this was lost with his death,” it adds.
The fatal crash took place shortly after the helicopter took off from Leicester’s ground following a 1-1 draw against West Ham on 27 October 2018.
The aircraft landed on a concrete step and four of the five occupants survived the initial impact, but all subsequently died in the fuel fire that engulfed the helicopter within a minute.
Thousands of tributes were left outside the ground in the wake of the tragedy. Pic: James Wilson/Sportimage
The other victims were two of Mr Srivaddhanaprabha’s staff, Nursara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare, pilot Eric Swaffer and Mr Swaffer’s girlfriend Izabela Roza Lechowicz, a fellow pilot.
Investigators found the pilot’s pedals became disconnected from the tail rotor – resulting in the aircraft making a sharp right turn which was “impossible” to control, before the helicopter spun quickly, approximately five times.
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The Air Accidents Investigation Branch described this as “a catastrophic failure” and concluded the pilot was unable to prevent the crash.
The lawsuit alleges the crash was the result of ‘multiple failures’ in Leonardo’s design process. It also alleges that the manufacturer failed to warn customers or regulators about the risk.
Sky News has contacted helicopter manufacturer Leonardo for comment.
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