By Naseh Shaker
The English lesson was very hard at one of the two schools targeted yesterday in Sana'a where 13 pupils were martyred and more than 90 wounded, some critically.
One schoolboy was martyred at al-Ahqaf Private School, the rest are from al-Raee Public School. At al-Ahqaf, there were about 600 pupils, Abdul Rahman al-Hadhrami, brother of the school director told al-Ahed News Website Monday morning.
Al-Hadhrami stressed the director of the school has gone to al-Kuwait Hospital to identify the martyred schoolboy whose body is still there. It's not clear when the funeral might be held. The school director’s car was parked at the school gate, with its rear windshield shattered.
"An Invitation"
At around 11:30 A.M. on Sunday, and at the third floor of al-Ahqaf School, all the of Nasser Ali Jahaf’s classmates were outside their class for a break after they had finished English class.
Jahaf didn't know English was going to be his last period. He had returned to class to take his backpack with him.
Samar al-Sanai, deputy of al-Ahqaf Private School, told al-Ahed that the student usually took his backpack with him. But this time, he forgot to take it, so he returned to class alone.
Then, a US-backed Saudi airstrike struck in broad daylight. A rock flew at Jahaf's class, breaking the window and hitting him on his head.
He was found martyred, according to al-Hadhrami, with blood near his backpack under the board. Their English lesson was titled "an invitation".
Many sentences were written on the board, among them "somebody tells you it’s their birthday".
Commenting on this sentence, deputy of the school, Al Sanai told al-Ahed: "Of course, it was Jahaf's birthday, martyrdom is a new birthday, not the end of this life."
Al-Sanai stressed that all enemies must understand this hard lesson.
Solidarity
On the other side of al-Ahqaf Private School, Education Office of Shuab District was organizing an event at the other school, al-Raee School for girls, where about 12 schoolgirls were martyred, mostly from the stampede to escape the school and run for their life.
Many of the pupils' backpacks were left in the classes and corridors of the school, shoes filled the corridors where more than 1500 schoolgirl learn.
At the solidarity event this morning, attended by security and educational officers, Faraj Hassan, director of Shuab Educational, was among the attendees. He stressed that education is the key to sustainable development and will not stop even if it came under threat of airstrikes.
He condemned allegations of the Saudi-led coalition especially Saudi "al-Hadath" Arabic Channel, which says Saudi coalition have targeted a military camp, pointing out that all victims are pupils.
"I call all main stream media to reach the scene of the crime and make sure of that," Hassan told al-Ahed at the courtyard of the al-Raee School where pupils, teachers from all Shuab district of Sana'a city we're gathering in protest of the crime.
Hassan concluded that "the airstrike has a deliberate, spiritual target. It targets all Yemeni people, for its children, because they targeted pupils at the flowering ages 9-13 years old."
Aftermath
I happened to live in the targeted neighborhood of Sawan in Shuab District, Sana'a. I was about 200 meter from the scene of the strike.
The explosion shook our neighborhood. I got out of the house and saw children running on the street and taking shelter in houses. Men and women headed toward the schools to look for their children.
Eight minutes after the airstrike, I filmed a schoolgirl crying near al-Raee School. She had no friend and no parents to ask about her. The footage went viral on social media.
What is strange is that the neighborhood is highly populated by supporters of radical Wahhabi Islam, but the warplanes of Al-Saud do not distinguish between Shias or Sunnis. They target them all, according to political activists.
20 minutes later, I saw a mother near the gate of the shattered al-Ahqaf Private School. She was screaming: "where is my son?" But the school guard told her all pupils went home in school buses.
However, the mother seemed as if not believing his reassurances as she came from home and her son was not there.
Source: Al-Ahed News Website, Edited by Website Team
