US lawmakers demand answers in Yemen attack
Democratic U.S. lawmakers demanded answers from the Trump administration after scores of children were killed in an airstrike on a school bus in Yemen last week.
Yemeni health officials said at least 51 people were killed – 40 of them children – when the Saudi-led coalition against Iran-backed Shiite rebels known as Houthis bombed the bus in the province of Saada, northern Yemen, last Thursday.
The United States, the United King- dom and France provide logistical and intelligence support to the Saudi-led campaign, which includes the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Saudi-led coalition first said the strike was “legitimate” and later said it would investigate “collateral damage,” the BBC reported.
Houthi officials called the strike a “crime by America and its allies against the children of Yemen,” according to the BBC.
Thousands of people attended the mass funerals of the children in rebelheld Saada this week. Most of the children, who were returning from a sum- mer camp, were 10 to 13, the United Nations said.
More than 70 people were injured, according to the Red Cross.
Democratic House and Senate members wrote three letters to U.S. defense officials demanding answers about U.S. involvement in the civil war, which has raged for more than three years.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote to U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Joseph Votel for details about how the United States supports the Saudiled bombing campaign, the Intercept reported.
Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a Penta- gon spokesperson, told USA TODAY in a statement Thursday that the United States “urged the Saudi-led coalition to conduct a thorough and comprehensive investigation of the strike and to release the results publicly.”
Rebarich said U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Garrett “pressed the Saudis” to devote the necessary resources to the investigation.
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., wrote to the Defense Department’s inspector general, calling for an investigation into whether U.S. personnel supporting the Saudi-led coalition violated U.S. or international law.