Dozens killed in Saudi airstrikes in Yemen
UN, US seek investigation of operation that resulted in death of at least 43 children
ADEN— Saudi-led coalition airstrikes on Thursday killed dozens of people, including children traveling on a bus through a market, in Yemen’s Saada province, officials said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the deaths of dozens of civilians and called for “an independent and prompt investigation,” a spokesperson said.
“The Secretary-General emphasizes that all parties must take constant care to spare civilians and civilian objects in the conduct of military operations,” UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said.
US not involved
The United States, which supports the coalition, denied it was involved in the attack and also called for an investigation of the airstrikes.
“We are certainly concerned about the reports that there was an attack that resulted in the deaths of civilians. We call on the Saudi-led coalition to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the incident,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told a press briefing.
The alliance fighting the Iranian-aligned Houthi group in Yemen said that the airstrikes targeted missile launchers used to attack the southern Saudi city of Jizan on Wednesday, killing a Yemeni civilian there.
Children as shields
It accused the Houthis of using children as human shields and said the strikes were carried out in accordance with interna- tional humanitarian law.
Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdul-Salam said the coalition showed “clear disregard for civilian life” as the attack had targeted a crowded public place in the city.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said a strike hit a bus carrying children in Dahyan market, in northern Saada.
“Our shops were open and shoppers were walking around as usual. All of those who died were residents, children and shop owners,” witness Moussa Abdullah, who was being treated in hospital for wounds, told Reuters.
The ICRC said on its Twitter account that its medical team had received the bodies of 29 children, all under 15 years old. The hospital also received 48 wounded people, among them 30 children.
Abdul-Ghani Sareeh, from Saada health department, told Reuters: “A bus carrying children was targeted today while they were coming from summer school resulting in 43 martyrs and almost 63 wounded.”
Children victimized
Injured children, bloodied, bandaged and screaming, lay on stretchers as doctors treated them, friends and relatives having carried some of them in their arms to be treated.
It was unclear how many of the dead in total were children and how many airstrikes were carried out in the area, in northern Yemen, near the border with Saudi Arabia.