This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
SAUDI ARABIA has been accused of war crimes after at least 11 people, mainly children, were killed in an air strike in a civilian area of Yemen’s north-western Hajjah province today.
The missile struck the home of Ahmed Mohammad Tamri in the early hours in a second attack in less than 24 hours.
Initial reports said that seven children aged between 18 months and 14 years were killed in the attack, although the death toll may rise, according to those on the ground. A woman believed to be the children’s mother also died as a result of the bombing.
Mohammed Ali al-Houthi of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council said the continued targeting of the impoverished country’s civilian population was “a war crime and deliberate terrorism.”
Saudi Arabia has intensified its attacks on Yemen in recent weeks.
Missiles have targeted key sections of infrastructure and civilian areas, although Riyadh insists its operations are against Houthi bases and drone centres.
Last month at least 60 people were killed and 200 injured in an air strike on a prison in Saada in the north of Yemen.
In another attack, missiles targeting a telecommunications tower in the port city of Hudaydah killed three children who were playing football nearby.
The latest allegations of war crimes came a day after the Saudi-led coalition broke a ceasefire on at least 163 occasions. This included six spy flights and 54 artillery attacks on Hudaydah.
The Gulf kingdom consistently breaks the UN-brokered Stockholm Agreement, signed in December 2018, which includes a ceasefire along the Hudaydah front intended to end a blockade of the port.
According to a United Nations report issued in November, 377,000 people were predicted to have died as a result of the war by the end of 2021.
About 70 per cent of Yemen’s population rely on humanitarian aid in what is said to be the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Despite this, Western countries continue to sell arms to Riyadh. United States President Joe Biden recently approved the sale of $650 million (£478m) in air-to-air missiles to Saudi Arabia despite mounting evidence of its war crimes.
The Saudi-led bombing of Yemen began in March 2015 in a bid to restore the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who was ousted in a Houthi-led popular uprising.
