At least 29 children were killed in the latest attack on civilians by Saudi and UAE forces, which are supported by the United States
Dozens of children—most reportedly under the age of 10—were killed and wounded by an air strike launched by the U.S.-backed Saudi coalition in Yemen on Thursday. The attack targeted a school bus. (Photo: @FrancescoRocca/Twitter)
Declarations of outrage were followed by demands for an immediate investigation on Thursday after reports that the U.S.-backed Saudi coalition slaughtered dozens of innocent civilians, including many children traveling on a school bus, when it bombed an area near a crowded market in Yemen.
The International Committee of the Red Cross reported on Twitter that its medical team had received "the bodies of 29 children, all under 15 years old" and was treating "48 injured people, among them 30 children."
The school bus that was bombed was reportedly carrying children back to religious education classes after a picnic near the city of Dahyan, according to reports from Save the Children and Al Jazeera. Local journalists reported seeing "body parts scattered" at the scene.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), an outspoken critic of the United States' support for the Saudi coalition, expressed fury over the attack and demanded once again that lawmakers end their complicity in the war.
U.S. bombs. U.S. targeting. U.S. mid air support.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) August 9, 2018
And we just bombed a SCHOOL BUS.
The Saudi/UAE/U.S. bombing campaign is getting more reckless, killing more civilians, and strengthening terrorists inside Yemen. We need to end this - NOW. https://t.co/P8V2L6Crgi
"Save the Children condemns this horrific attack and is calling for a full, immediate and independent investigation into this and other recent attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals," said the group in a statement. "We have seen a worrying rise in these incidents and no action has been taken to hold the perpetrators to account."
YEMEN : Save the Children calls for immediate independent investigation after dozens of children feared dead in school bus attack. @foreignoffice #Yemen #Yemencrisis #NotATarget https://t.co/Uxvv2i1eSX pic.twitter.com/h0ZwOCP6v3
— SavetheChildren News (@SaveUKNews) August 9, 2018
Health officials in Saada told Al Jazeera that 43 people were killed and 61 were wounded in the attack, the majority of whom were children.
According to Al Jazeera, the Saudi coalition claimed it had targeted "missile launchers," but Yemen-based reporters who have witnessed numerous attacks in civilian-populated areas vigorously disputed the claim.
"The place is known to be a market, [and] there is no military installation nearby... but the Saudis are known to have done this many times—target schools, weddings and so on," Nasser Arrabyee told Al Jazeera.
In April, the coalition killed at least 20 Yemeni civilians—including a bride—when it bombed a wedding party. As Al Jazeera reported, a third of the 258 attacks carried out by Saudi and UAE forces in June targeted non-military sites.
In a rare show of attention to the war that's been going on since March 2015, killing and injuring 15,000 civilians and plunging the country into what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis, MSNBC briefly covered the attack and noted that the Saudi coalition is backed by United States, which supplies fuel and intelligence to Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the coalition's war on the Houthi rebels in support of the Yemeni government.
@adamjohnsonNYC I just saw MSNBC do a short segment on how US back Saudi Arabia dropped a bomb on a school bus in Yemen. Probably lasted 30 seconds, if that.
— Erik Pfantz (@ErikPfantz) August 9, 2018
But on social media, critics noted that other coverage of the air strike in the US and Britain—which also supports the coalition—failed to acknowledge the countries' involvement in the war.
US media outlets that call this atrocity (and others like it in Yemen) the work of a "Saudi-led coalition" - without highlighting the vital, indispensable, multi-layered support the US & UK have given to it from the start (2015) - are engaged in propaganda https://t.co/OgZ9hGYzec https://t.co/mgfh6FRUUn
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 9, 2018
Dozens, mostly children, massacred in Saudi UAE attack on #Yemen bushttps://t.co/N32UiigL0p
— Charles Shoebridge (@ShoebridgeC) August 9, 2018
As almost always if a US UK ally to blame, note how BBC headline doesn’t name the perpetrator, and article nowhere mentions that victims likely killed with US UK supplied planes and bombs
International rights groups repeated calls for an end to the war and strongly condemned the bus attack and other civilian massacres.
Grotesque, shameful, indignant. Blatant disregard for rules of war when bus carrying innocent school children is fair game for attack. #NotATargethttps://t.co/ZvCVvIdDdL
— Jan Egeland (@NRC_Egeland) August 9, 2018
Appalled by the attack in #Yemen on a bus full of kids. This is shameful, unacceptable, cruel and barbaric. Civilians are #NotATarget, kids are #NotATarget: they must be protected. All my thoughts to victims, their beloveds and our @ICRC_ye colleagues who are supporting hospitals pic.twitter.com/ayZDJPWmbN
— Francesco Rocca (@Francescorocca) August 9, 2018
"This is yet another example of the blatant violations of international humanitarian law that we have seen in Yemen over the past three years—from indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on civilians, denial of access to humanitarian aid and the use of starvation as a weapon of war—it's the people of Yemen, not the warring parties, who are paying the ultimate price," said Sylvia Ghaly, director of advocacy in Yemen for Save the Children.
"There is no military solution to this conflict," she added. "Only a political solution can bring the war to an end and reinstate peace in Yemen. We urge all parties to agree to an immediate cessation of hostilities, return to the negotiation table to commit to a ceasefire and cooperate with the U.N. Special Envoy Martin Griffiths. Spare the Yemeni people more death and misery."
As award-winning journalist Iona Craig noted last week, such slaughter and barbarity is nothing new when it comes to the U.S. and Saudi role in Yemen:
U.S.-backed Saudi airstrike on family with nine children shows “clear violations” of the laws of war https://t.co/289p9isVDF by @ionacraig @shuaibalmosawa
— Iona Craig أيونا كريچ (@ionacraig) August 2, 2018
