Saudi jets pound western Yemen afresh, drop cluster bombs

Rasa - Saudi warplanes have conducted fresh aerial assaults on several provinces in western Yemen, using cluster bombs in their attacks.

News ID: 423669

Date: 18 September 2016 - 23:29

RNA - Yemen’s al-Masirah TV channel reported that the Saudi jets targeted al-Dhahir and Shada'a districts of Sa’ada province on Sunday with six cluster bombs, but there is still no word on possible casualties.

Cluster bombs are banned under the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), an international treaty that addresses the humanitarian consequences and unacceptable harm caused to civilians by cluster munitions through a categorical prohibition and a framework for action.

Additionally on Sunday, two areas in Ta’izziyah district, situated in the southwestern Ta’izz province, came under Saudi strikes.

Saudi aircraft further hit a town in Amran Province. A Bridge in nearby al-Mahwit province was also targeted in the air raids.

Moreover, Harad district of Hajjah province and Nihm district of the Sana’a province witnessed similar Saudi airstrikes.

Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015, with the UN putting the toll at 10,000. The offensive was launched to crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement and its allies and reinstate the resigned president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

The Houthis took state matters in their own hands after the resignation and escape of Hadi, which threw Yemen into a state of uncertainty and threatened a total security breakdown there.

According to a recent survey, conducted by the Yemen Data Project, a group of academics and human rights activists, Saudi airstrikes hit 3,158 non-military sites between March 2015 and the end of August this year.

The findings, published by The Guardian, further exposed that there were 942 air raids on residential areas, 114 on markets, 34 on mosques, 147 on school buildings, 26 on universities and 378 on transport sites over the course of the bombardment.

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