HRW: Saudi Coalition Used ’Banned’ Cluster Munitions in Yemen’s Saada
Local Editor
According to the Human Rights Watch [HRW] organization, the US-led Saudi coalition against Yemen used banned plane-dropped cluster ammunitions in Yemen’s Saada, as it said in a recent report on Monday.
In a new report released on Monday, HRW recorded violations committed by the US-led Saudi coalition against civilians in Yemen.
HRW said about its visit to Saada that, "After over six weeks of airstrikes, the city [Saada] is littered with craters, debris, and destroyed buildings."
"We documented several strikes on residential buildings, and markets without an apparent military objective that have killed and wounded civilians. On May 6, for example, a bomb struck a residential home in Saada, killing 27 members of one family, including 14 children. Bombing has destroyed at least four markets in Saada, making it harder for people to buy food," the report said.
"Further attacks on electricity and water installations as well as food storage centers may have had a military justification, but the short and long-term harm to civilians may have far exceeded any military gain", it further said.
HRW said: "According to the United Nation Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, by May 12 the fighting had killed 828 civilians in Yemen, many by airstrikes. Human Rights Watch has documented several apparently indiscriminate airstrikes resulting in civilian casualties, including one on a camp for displaced people 6 kilometers from the Saudi border that killed at least 29 civilians, and another that repeatedly struck a dairy factory that killed at least 31 in the western port city of Hodaida."
"We have also documented that coalition forces have used banned plane-dropped cluster munitions in the Saada governorate," HRW said in the report on Monday.
Saudi Arabia began its US-led military aggression against Yemen on March 26 - without a UN mandate - in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement, and to restore power to fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is a close ally of Saudi Arabia.
