UK Labour Leader: Yemeni Kids' Blood Is on British Hands

Rasa - British leader of Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn strongly condemned recent massacre of Yemeni students by the Saudi-led coalition, stating that "London support for the conflict and the humanitarian crisis it's unleashed, must end".

News ID: 439079

Date: 13 August 2018 - 21:47

RNA - "These children were slaughtered travelling back to school after a picnic. It is the latest atrocity in the Saudi-led war in Yemen, armed and backed by the UK government. UK support for this conflict, and the humanitarian crisis it's unleashed, must end," Corbyn wrote on Twitter.

As soon as a bus carrying school children entered a busy market in the Sa’ada town of Zahyn on Thursday, Saudi fighters targeted it. At least 50 civilians have lost their lives and over 80 others sustained injuries, most of whom were students under the age of 10.

As the Saudi-led coalition has claimed that its airstrike constituted a "legitimate action", and accused Ansarullah of using children as human shields, the United Nations Security Council announced that a credible and transparent probe is needed into the air raid on the bus.

Yemeni Human Rights Minister Alia al-Shaabi strongly condemned the brutal assault of Riyadh and its allies on a school children's bus on Thursday, stating that the Saudi-led coalition sees Yemeni women and children as strategic targets.

"The Saudi aggressors have made the Yemeni people, children, old men and women as military targets," she said, adding that "we welcome the condemnations of international organizations and the United Nations for the crime and call for the formation of an impartial and independent international commission of inquiry".

Al-Shaabi revealed that the missile used by the coalition to hit the bus carrying Yemeni kids was exactly the same type which killed some 140 people at a funeral ceremony in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, in 2016, and was made in the United States.

At least 140 people were killed and more than 500 wounded in several airstrikes on a funeral reception in Sana'a in early October 2016, according to health officials. The death toll was one of the largest in any single incident since Saudi Arabia began military operations aganist against its impoverished Southern neighbor in March 2015.

Al-Shaabi's point of view on the issue echoes an Ansarullah official's remarks who said the bombs used by the Riyadh-led coalition on Thursday attack was made in the US and was MK-82 which had earlier been used to pound a wedding ceremony in Hajjah province and a prison in al-Zaidiyeh.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had described the war in Yemen as a “war on children”, given the extensive damage that the conflict has caused to children in Yemen.

It also stressed that 2017 was the worst year for the children in Yemen.

According to Fars News Agancy, Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen since March 2015 to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 17,500 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.

Despite Riyadh's claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

Reports by independent world bodies have warned that the Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen has driven the impoverished country towards humanitarian disaster, as Saudi Arabia's deadly campaign prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country.

Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with more than 22 million people in need and is seeing a spike in needs, fuelled by ongoing conflict, a collapsing economy and diminished social services and livelihoods.

A UN panel has compiled a detailed report of civilian casualties caused by the Saudi military and its allies during their war against Yemen, saying the Riyadh-led coalition has used precision-guided munitions in its raids on civilian targets.

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