40 children among 51 killed in Yemeni blast

Forty children were among 51 people killed late last week in a Saudi-led coalition air strike on a bus in rebel-held northern Yemen, the Red Cross said on Tuesday.

Fifty-six children were also among the 79 people wounded in the strike on Saada province, a rebel stronghold that borders Saudi Arabia, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

The new casualty toll came after a mass funeral held for many of the dead children on Monday.

Mourners raised pictures of the children and shouted slogans against Saudi Arabia and its ally and key arms supplier, the US.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 as Huthi rebel fighters closed in on the last bastion of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi’s government.

The conflict has killed nearly 10,000 people since then, the vast majority of them civilians, and caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN.

The UN Security Council called for a “credible” investigation into the deadly strike.

But it stopped short of demanding an independent investigation, and experts and aid groups voiced doubts that a promised coalition probe would provide transparency or accountability. The coalition has been repeatedly blamed for bombing civilians, including a strike on a wedding hall in the Red Sea coastal town of Mokha in September 2015, in which 131 people died.

The coalition denied responsibility.

Fifty-six children were also among 79 people wounded in the strike