Saudi warplanes hit northwestern Yemen, killing more civilians

Saudi warplanes conducted a new series of airstrikes on northwestern Yemen Wednesday, killing at least four people, local media reports say.

Yemen’s al-Masirah television said the Saudi jets bombed parts of Hudaydah Province as the kingdom's aerial attacks on its impoverished southern neighbor have continued nonstop since they started on March 26, 2015.

On Wednesday, the northwestern province of Jawf, the southwestern province of Ta’izz and the northern province of Sana'a were also targeted in similar strikes.

On Tuesday, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called on the United States, Britain and France - the largest arms suppliers to the regime in Riyadh - to stop arms deliveries to Saudi Arabia.

Amnesty says the arms exports to Riyadh have contributed to the Saudi crimes against Yemeni civilians and have given rise to a humanitarian crisis in the Arab world’s most impoverished nation.

James Lynch, Amnesty’s regional deputy director, said, “Saudi Arabia's international partners have added fuel to the fire, flooding the region with arms despite the mounting evidence that such weaponry has facilitated appalling crimes.”

Philippe Bolopion, the deputy global advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, urged Washington, London and Paris in a statement to suspend all the weapons sales until Riyadh begins to “curtail its abuses.”

“By continuing to sell weapons to a known violator that has done little to curtail its abuses, the US, UK and France risk being complicit in unlawful civilian deaths,” Bolopion said.

Saudi Arabia has been under fire for carrying out indiscriminate bombardment, including through the use of cluster bombs, in various parts of Yemen.

Amnesty says it has documented at least 32 airstrikes “that appear to have violated international humanitarian law” and killed more than 360 civilians.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch says it has documented at least three dozen "unlawful airstrikes" by Saudi warplanes that have killed at least 550 civilians in Yemen.

On March 18, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, said Saudi Arabia and its allies may be committing crimes against humanity due to their indiscriminate killing of civilians in Yemen. The world body has already warned of a "human catastrophe unfolding in Yemen."

Saudi Arabia launched its military aggression in a bid to bring the fugitive former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Riyadh, back to power and undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

More than 8,500 people, among them over 2,000 children, have been killed since the onset of the Saudi campaign.

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