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Four children killed, two injured as cluster bomb explodes in Yemen’s Ma’rib

This file picture shows remnants of an air-dropped cluster bomb and unexploded BLU-97 submunitions found in the al-Nushoor and al-Maqash areas of Yemen’s northern Sa’ada Province. (Photo by Human Rights Watch)

At least four children have lost their lives and two others sustained injuries when a cluster bomb dropped earlier by the Saudi-led military aircraft in a residential area of Yemen’s central province of Ma’rib went off.

Arabic-language al-Masirah television network, citing local sources, reported that the explosion took place in the village of al-Hazm, which lies in the Harib al-Qaramish district of the province, on Tuesday.

Back on June 11, Yemen's Ministry of Human Rights, in a statement released by the official SABA news agency, warned that cluster munitions pose a serious danger to the lives of civilians, especially women and children, if they come in close contact with them.

The statement added that the alliance has used thousands of cluster bombs on residential areas, causing the death and injury of many civilians. Unexploded submunitions risk the lives of locals in the targeted areas as well.

The ministry further highlighted that thousands of civilians, mostly women and children, have either lost their lives or sustained grave injuries since March 2015 as Saudi-led military aircraft continue to strike various areas across Yemen.

Also on Tuesday, a child suffered gunshot wounds when Saudi border guards opened fire at a village in the Ghamr district of the northwestern Yemeni province of Sa’ada.

The latest incident comes weeks after the UN removed the Saudi-led coalition from its blacklist of child killers, sparking anger among rights groups. 

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia has been conducting a bloody military aggression in Yemen with help from its regional allies, and using arms supplied by its Western backers. The aim of the war has been to bring former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and defeat the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

Over 100,000 people have lost their lives as a result of the military aggression in the past five years, according to some figures.

The war has also destroyed, damaged and shut down Yemen's infrastructure, including a large number of hospitals and clinics.

The Yemeni population has been subjected to large-scale hunger and diseases aggravated by the naval blockade imposed on the country by the coalition of aggressors.


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