Mourners bury victims, vow revenge
SAADA, Yemen: Thousands of mourners yesterday buried dozens of children killed in a Saudiled coalition air strike on a bus in northern Yemen, one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in the threeyearold war.
At least 40 children were killed in last week’s strike, which hit a bus as it drove through a market in Dahyan, a town in Saada, the armed Houthi group which controls the province said.
Amid outrage from international human rights groups and UN officials, Riyadh continued to defend the raid as a ‘‘legitimate military action’’ intended to hit Houthi leaders, a day after it authorised a coalition investigation of the strike.
Wooden coffins, most with a picture of a child, were taken by cars and carried by pall bearers to a graveyard from a square where prayers were held earlier. ‘‘Death to America, death to Israel,’’ the crowd chanted, echoing the Houthis’ slogan.
The shrouded bodies were removed from the coffins and placed in a row of unmarked graves.
‘‘My son went to the market to run house errands and then the enemy air strike happened and he was hit by shrapnel and died,’’ said Fares alRazhi, mourning his 14yearold son.
‘‘For my son, I will take revenge on Salman and Mohammed Bin Zayed,’’ he said, referring to the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Gulf Arab states are leading the alliance of Sunni Muslim countries that intervened in Yemen’s war in 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognised government that was expelled from the capital Sanaa by the Houthis in 2014.
The head of the Houthis’ supreme revolutionary committee, Mohammed Ali alHouthi, attended the funeral and blamed the United States for ‘‘this ugly massacre of Yemeni children’’.
The United States and other Western powers provide arms and intelligence to the alliance. — Reuters