Saudi jets attack bus carrying children, leave 50 civilians dead
Dozens of civilians have lost their lives and dozens more sustained injuries as Saudi warplanes targeted a bus carrying children in Yemen’s northwestern province of Sa’ada.
The bus came under attack at a market in the Sa’ada town of Zahyn on Thursday, Yemen’s al-Masirah television network reported.
The Yemeni Health Ministry said 50 civilians, mostly children, were killed and about 77 others wounded in the attack.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement that the bus was carrying children.
Following an attack this morning on a bus driving children in Dahyan Market, northern Sa’ada, @ICRC_yemen- supported hospital has received dozens of dead and wounded. Under international humanitarian law, civilians must be protected during conflict. pic.twitter.com/x39NVB8G4p
— ICRC Yemen (@ICRC_ye) August 9, 2018
Johannes Bruwer, head of delegation for the ICRC in Yemen, also said in a tweet that most of the victims were under the age of 10.
In a defiant statement, the Saudi-led coalition called the carnage a "legitimate action," claiming the fatal air raids were aimed at missile launchers used by Yemeni forces to target the Jizan industrial city in southern Saudi Arabia, a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.
The strikes "conformed to international and humanitarian laws," the statement claimed, quoting coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki.
Elsewhere, Saudi fighter jets pounded Zabid District in Yemen’s western province of Hudaydah, killing two civilians and injuring one child.
Saudi Arabia and some of its allies, particularly the United Arab Emirates, launched a brutal war, code-named Operation Decisive Storm, against Yemen in March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, and crush the popular Ansarullah movement.
The offensive initially consisted of a bombing campaign, but was later coupled with a naval blockade and the deployment of ground forces into Yemen.
The imposed war has so far failed to achieve its goal, thanks to firm resistance mounted by Yemeni troops and Houthi fighters, but has unleashed the world's worst humanitarian crisis in the poorest Arabian Peninsula state.
Yemeni armed forces down F-18 fighter jet, repel US-UK attack: Spokesman
Iran: US airstrikes on Yemen war crimes, violation of international law
Iran warns against US-Israeli plot to weaken Muslims, dominate region
VIDEO | Yemenis praise the military for its successful operations against Israel
VIDEO | Israel continues to bomb Gaza homes
VIDEO | An insider's view of the country: Meybod City in Yazd
‘All wars have rules. All of those rules have been broken’ by Israel
VIDEO | Report flags India’s violation of rights of Rohingya detainees
Turkey's foreign minister meets Syria's de facto leader in Damascus
VIDEO | US Syria plots
'Next to impossible' to rescue patients from Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital: Director
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
