Airstrike ‘apparent war crime’
An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Iranaligned Houthi rebels in Yemen that killed dozens of people last month is an ‘‘apparent war crime,’’ an international rights group said yesterday.
The report came days after UN human rights experts said all sides in the fighting may have been responsible for committing war crimes in the 3-year conflict.
The coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognised government expressed regret on Sunday and pledged to hold accountable those found to be responsible for the airstrike, which hit a bus carrying children in a busy market in the northern province of Saada. At least 51 people, including 40 children, were killed, and 79 others, including 56 children, were wounded.
Human Rights Watch said the attack adds to the coalition’s ‘‘already gruesome track record of killing civilians at weddings, funerals, hospitals and schools in Yemen.’’
The New York-based group said it spoke by phone to 14 witnesses, including nine children, who said that shortly before 8.30am on August 9, a bomb fell on the market in Dhahyan, a town north of Saada in Houthicontrolled northwestern Yemen, 60km from the Saudi border.
The bomb landed a few meters from a bus packed with boys on an excursion organised by a mosque to visit the graves of men who had been killed in fighting, the group said. The bus was parked outside a grocery store where the driver had gone to buy water for the children, HRW said.
‘‘I saw bodies torn into pieces, pieces of my friends . ... Many of my friends died,’’ the group quoted Ahmad Hanash, 14, as saying.
He and his brothers Hassan, 13, and Yahia, 11, were wounded in the attack.
Bill Van Esveld, senior children’s rights researcher for HRW, urged the US and other countries to ‘‘immediately stop weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and support strengthening the independent UN inquiry into violations in Yemen, or risk being complicit in future atrocities.’’
The coalition said it has accepted the conclusions of its investigative body, known as the Joint Incidents Assessments Team, which found that the airstrike involved ‘‘mistakes,’’ including failing to take measures to minimise collateral damage.
The coalition said in its statement that ‘‘it will take all the legal measures to hold accountable those who were proven to have committed mistakes’’ once it officially receives the findings. It also pledged to coordinate with Yemen’s government to compensate civilians.
The US State Department yesterday welcomed the coalition’s statement as ‘‘an important first step toward full transparency and accountability.’’
It urged all sides of the conflict to ‘‘abide by the Law of Armed Conflict, to mitigate harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure, and thoroughly investigate and ensure accountability for any violations.’’
HRW’s statement came after UN human rights experts said last week that the governments of Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia may have been responsible for committing war crimes, including rape, torture, arbitrary detention and use of child soldiers. –AP