Saudi Arabia Keeps Bombing Yemen Despite Calls for Halt

Saudi Arabia continues its deadly military attacks against Yemen despite calls for the cessation of the aggression against the impoverished country.

Media reports on Tuesday said that at least four people were killed and six others sustained injuries in a Saudi airstrike in Yemen.

Saudi fighter jets also pounded the al-Seifi and Beit al-Ahmer areas in the Sanhan Directorate, located south of the capital, Sana’a.

Reports also said that Saudi warplanes targeted areas in the northwestern Yemeni province of Sa’ada.

Riyadh also launched several airstrikes on the Yemeni military bases in the southern Yemeni city of Ta’izz.

There was no immediate report on possible casualties following the strikes in Sanhan, Ta’izz and Sa’ada.

Saudi Arabia kept targeting Yemen during a five-day period of “ceasefire,” from May 12 to May 17, which had been declared by Riyadh itself.

On Monday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for the extension of the humanitarian pause, only to be rebuffed by Saudi Arabia.

Iran voices concern

Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday expressed concern about Saudi Arabia’s disregard of the international community’s calls for a ceasefire in Yemen.

“The incessant bombardment of various areas in Yemen over the nearly past two months has created appalling conditions, and millions of children, young and elderly people are in need of urgent medical, medication and food aid,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said.

She said that even during the recent pause in the conflict, Saudi Arabia blocked the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Yemeni people and “repeatedly violated the ceasefire and targeted the innocent and defenseless Yemeni people in aerial bombings.”

Saudi Arabia’s air campaign against Yemen started on March 26 – without a UN mandate – in a bid to restore power to the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

Over 1,800 people have been killed and 7,330 injured due to the conflict in Yemen since March 19, according to the UN.

Banned weapons used in Saudi air strikes on Yemen

On the other hand, Human Rights watch accused the Saudi-led coalition of using banned cluster munitions in its indiscriminate air strikes on the Yemeni province of Sa’ada.

In a new report released late on Monday, the New York-based organization recorded violations committed by the coalition against civilians in Yemen.

“After over six weeks of airstrikes, the city (Sa’ada) is littered with craters, debris, and destroyed buildings,” HRW said about its visit to Sa’ada.

“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 Sa’ada, killing 27 members of one family, including 14 children. Bombing has destroyed at least four markets in Sa’ada, 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.”

“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 Hudaydah.”

“We have also documented that coalition forces have used banned plane-dropped cluster munitions in the Sa’ada governorate,” HRW said in the report.

Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi warplanes are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

 

PRESS T.V, FNA

R.S