Dozens dead after school bus carrying children hit
ADEN: A coalition air strike on Thursday killed dozens of people, including children travelling on a bus, in Yemen’s Saada province, Yemeni medical sources and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. The air strikes targeted missile launchers used to attack the southern Saudi city of Jizan.
It accused the rebels of using children as human shields.
The ICRC said one attack hit the bus driving children in Dahyan market, in northern Saada, adding hospitals there had received dozens of dead and wounded.
Abdul-ghani Sareeh, head of a health department in Saada, said the death toll was to 43, with 61 wounded.
“Scores killed, even more injured, most under the age of 10,” Johannes Bruwer, head of delegation for the ICRC in Yemen, said in a Twitter post.
It was unclear how many children were killed and how many air strikes were carried out in the area, in northern Yemen.
The alliance says it does not intentionally target civilians and has set up a committee to probe alleged mass casualty air strikes, which has mostly cleared the coalition of any blame.
“Today’s attack in Saada was a legitimate military operation... and was carried out in accordance with international humanitarian law,” the coalition said in the Arabic-language statement carried by SPA.
Saada, the main stronghold of rebels, has mainly come under air strikes from the coalition as the mountainous province makes battles hard for pro-government ground troops.
The Yemen war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than 2 million and driven the country to the verge of famine, according to the United Nations.