Daily: US Aiding Saudi War Crimes in Yemen

Rasa - The New York Times argued in its newspaper that US assistance to the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen amounted to killing innocent Yemeni civilians.

News ID: 439298

Date: 30 August 2018 - 22:09

RNA - The op-ed piece cited reports by the UN and international watchdog Human Rights Watch, which said the Saudi coalition is responsible of war crimes in Yemen.

The report also emphasized the role of Washington is not only selling weapons to the coalition but also providing military assistance.

"It’s time for the United States and its Western allies to stop selling arms or giving any military assistance to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners," the newspaper wrote.

The majority of Washington aid to coalition forces in Yemen have been in aerial combat, which received criticism when a US made bomb was used to target a school bus, killing dozens of Yemeni children.

According to CNN, the weapon was a 500 pound laser guided MK-82 bomb made by Lockheed Martin, one of the top defense contractors in the US The bomb was sold to Saudi Arabia in a State Department approved arms deal.

The violence in Yemen has devastated the country's infrastructure, including its health and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.

“Clearly, we’re concerned about civilian casualties, and they know about our concern,” Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian told The New York Times.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis said Tuesday that while US support to Saudi Arabia is not unconditional, it will continue to provide assistance to coalition forces fighting in Yemen.

The Times added that the next step for the US should be to cut off aid to Saudi Arabia, a move that is not likely to happen.

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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