US and Israel complicit in Saudi carnage in Sana'a: IRGC

Journalists and policemen inspect the scene at the community hall where Saudi warplanes struck a funeral in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, on October 9, 2016. (Photo by Reuters)

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has censured the recent Saudi airstrike on a funeral gathering in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, saying the criminal act was a joint plot hatched by the United States, the Israeli regime and Saudi Arabia.

In a strongly worded statement on Sunday, the IRGC called on all Muslim nations to condemn Al Saud’s "Zionist crime," adding, “The US policies in the Muslim world are turning into a factor for the genocide and gradual massacre of Muslims.”

It added that the US has committed crimes in many countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Libya, and Bahrain and in recent years its atrocities have included catastrophes such as those in Mina and Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

The IRGC said the most recent example of the US crimes can be seen in the targeting and massacring of the oppressed and defenseless people of Yemen in the most violent manner.

The bloodthirsty regime of Al Saud has been killing the oppressed Muslim people of Yemen simultaneously with Syrian and Iraqi Muslims over the past one and a half years to make up for its political failure in the Muslim world, the IRGC added.

“There is no doubt that the crime of the bombardment of a funeral ceremony in Sana’a, which was attended by more than 1,500 defenseless Arab Muslims, has pushed the Saudi regime another big step closer to collapse,” the IRGC said.

It emphasized that the similarity between the Israeli regime’s child killing in the Gaza Strip and Al Saud’s genocide in Yemen shows the evil intentions of Tel Aviv and Riyadh to target Arab Muslim nations in the region.

The IRGC expressed confidence that the Muslim Yemeni people, led by powerful Houthi Ansarullah movement, would take revenge and give an “unforgettable lesson” to the Al Saud regime and its malicious allies.

It also urged Muslim nations to remain vigilant in the face of plots hatched by Arrogant Powers and Zionists and implemented by the Saudi regime.

The statement emphasized that the brave Iranian people would continue to support the resistance movement of Muslim nations, particularly the oppressed Yemenis, against "the Zionist crimes of the Al Saud regime."

More than 140 Yemenis were killed and over 525 wounded on Saturday, when Saudi airstrike hit a community hall in south of the capital, Sana’a, where a funeral for the father of Interior Minister Jalal al-Roweishan was being held.

Firefighters try to extinguish fire at the community hall where Saudi warplanes struck a funeral in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, on October 9, 2016. (Photo by Reuters)

The Saudi missiles tore through the hall with hundreds of body parts left strewn in and outside the building.

In a statement released on Sunday, Yemen’s Supreme Political Council vowed a firm response to the Saudi air raid, calling on people to take to the streets of Sana’a to decry the assault.

The death toll was one of the largest in a single incident since March 2015, when the Riyadh regime began its deadly campaign to crush the Houthis and their allies and restore power to Yemen's resigned president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.