Direct proof of use
Human Rights Watch documented Mk 84-family bomb bodies in Saudi-led coalition airstrikes during the 2014 Yemen Civil War. In the March 15, 2016 Mastaba market strike in Hajjah governorate, HRW said its investigators found remnants of a GBU-31 satellite-guided bomb made from a U.S.-supplied Mk 84 2,000-pound bomb body and a JDAM guidance kit. HRW also reviewed ITV footage and photographs that it said showed an Mk 84 bomb body paired with a Paveway laser-guidance kit at the same site.
A second HRW investigation tied the same bomb class to an industrial-site strike in Sanaa governorate. At the al-Aqil Industrial Compound, hit on January 19, 2016, HRW reported that it examined the site on March 21 and identified remnants of the third bomb as an MK-84 general-purpose bomb.
Sources: HRW Mastaba market strike investigation, HRW Bombing Businesses Yemen report
Timeline
The Saudi-led coalition began its air campaign in Yemen in March 2015, backing Yemen's internationally recognized government against Houthi-aligned forces. By late 2015, U.S. foreign-military-sale notices included large numbers of BLU-117/Mk 84 2,000-pound general-purpose bomb bodies and GBU-31 JDAM kits for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, both coalition participants.
The clearest sourced Mk 84 strike examples in this record come from January and March 2016. HRW identified an MK-84 general-purpose bomb remnant at al-Aqil after the January 19 strikes. On March 15, HRW and ITV-associated evidence placed Mk 84 bomb bodies, configured with JDAM and Paveway guidance kits, at the Mastaba market strike.
Sources: CFR Yemen and Red Sea Tracker, DSCA Saudi Arabia Air-to-Ground Munitions, Federal Register UAE JDAM Notice, HRW Bombing Businesses Yemen report, HRW Mastaba market strike investigation
Narrative
In Yemen, the Mk 84 appears in the record primarily as the 2,000-pound bomb body inside guided air-to-ground weapons, rather than as a simple free-fall bomb. HRW's Mastaba account identified both a GBU-31 JDAM configuration and a Paveway laser-guided configuration built around Mk 84 bomb bodies. The source record therefore supports Saudi-led coalition use of Mk 84-family bomb bodies in airstrikes, while the guidance kits determine the finished guided-weapon designation.
The documented side is the Yemeni government and Saudi-led coalition forces. The specific aircraft and air force responsible for the documented strike examples are not identified in the sources used here; the sources attribute the airstrikes to the Saudi-led coalition and document the recovered munition remnants at the strike sites.
Bellingcat's Yemen Project corroborated the Mastaba incident location, date, market setting, and the two-munition airstrike pattern using open-source imagery, satellite imagery, and reports from HRW, the UN, MSF, and other sources. Bellingcat described the munition evidence more cautiously, noting that at least one recovered fragment appeared to be part of a guided-bomb wing assembly and that HRW claimed another fragment was from a JDAM.
Sources: HRW Mastaba market strike investigation, Bellingcat al-Khamis market strike, CFR Yemen and Red Sea Tracker
