Democrats want answers after airstrike kills kids in Yemen

51 die after Saudi-led forces bomb school bus

Democratic U.S. lawmakers are demanding 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 Kingdom 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 summer 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 war.

On Monday, President Donald Trump signed a $716 billion defense bill into law that included a measure requiring his administration to determine whether the U.S. or its partners violated U.S. law or policy while assisting the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. Trump has objected to 52 provisions of the new law, including that measure.