by Jason Ditz

Adding to the soaring civilian death toll in Yemen, Saudi warplanes attacked and destroyed the two-story home of Yemeni judge Yahya Rubaid, killing him and six members of his family. Seven others, including five civilians and two bodyguards, were also wounded.

Rubaid was the judge who oversaw the treason trial against Yemen’s President Abd-Rabu Mansour Hadi, who the Saudis are attempting to reinstall. The Saudis, however, deny that the killings were a targeted assassination, saying they were “looking for Scud missiles” in blowing up the house.

While the Scud missile excuse isn’t particularly credible, Saudi airstrikes hit seemingly random civilian homes across Yemen so often that it is virtually impossible at this point to tell the difference between a targeted assassination and their day-to-day recklessness.

Houthi officials reported the strike as one of scores of airstrikes hitting obviously civilian targets just in the past week, saying the Saudis had destroyed 190 homes and killed 220 civilians in the last week alone.