Iran Condemns Saudi Bombing of Detention Center in Yemen

The Iranian foreign ministry deplored the Saudi-led airstrikes against a detention center in Dhamar province on Sunday which killed and wounded tens of people.

News ID: 446825

Date: 03 September 2019 - 18:51

RNA - "Bombing of the captives' detention center is the latest war crime by the coalition led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen and adds a new page to the crimes of the aggressors," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi said on Sunday.

He noted that the detention center had been recognized and visited several times by the Red Crescent, and said, "These crimes are committed by the military aggressors against Yemen with the weapons made by the US and certain Western states."

Mousavi said that the Yemeni people certainly blame Washington and the West as collaborators in such crimes.

Yemeni officials said airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition hit a detention center in the Southwestern Dhamar province, killing at least 52 people.

The officials say the airstrikes took place Sunday and targeted a university in the city of Dhamar, which was used as a detention center.

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 more than 20,000 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.

According to Fars News Agancy, Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with more than 22 million people in need and is seeing a spike in needs, fueled by ongoing conflict, a collapsing economy and diminished social services and livelihoods. The blockade on Yemen has smothered humanitarian deliveries of food and medicine to the import-dependent state.

The UN has repeatedly criticized the Saudi-UAE-led military coalition's bombing campaign and placed it on a blacklist of child rights violators last year.

A UN panel has also 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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