Ansarullah: US Responsible for Massacre of Yemeni Children

TEHRAN (Defapress)_“We hold the United States of America, the Commander-in-Chief of the Saudi-led military alliance against Yemen, and all those who are serving at the coalition, whether they are of Saudi, Emirati or British nationalities, accountable for the massacre in Zahyn as well as all previous crimes against the Yemeni people,” Houthi said in a speech at a funeral ceremony for the victims of the massacre in the northern city of Sa’ada on Monday, Middle East News reported.

“America is indeed killing Yemeni children and women. Saudi Arabia is attacking our country under the tutelage of the United States," he added.

"It would have been impossible for Saudi and American officers in the command center of the Saudi-led coalition to perpetrate the recent slaughter if they had not received the green light from the US State Department. It is the United States that has granted Saudis the right to liquidate their opponents,” he stated.

Houthi further noted that the appalling massacre of children in Yemen is a repetition of the atrocities that Americans committed against Japanese people during World War II.

The high-ranking Yemeni official then hailed the military might of Yemeni rocket units, stressing that it has sent chills up the enemies’ spine.

He underlined that Yemeni ground, naval and air forces will continue their operations against aggressors to convey the message of Yemenis’ resilience and steadfastness.

Houthi then expressed his gratitude to all freedom-loving people who commiserated with the Yemeni nation over the carnage in Sa’ada.

As soon as a bus carrying school children entered a busy market in the Sa’ada town of Zahyn on Thursday, Saudi fighters targeted it. At least 50 civilians have lost their lives and over 80 others sustained injuries, most of whom were students under the age of 10.

As the Saudi-led coalition has claimed that its airstrike constituted a "legitimate action", and accused Ansarullah of using children as human shields, the United Nations Security Council announced that a credible and transparent probe is needed into the air raid on the bus.

Yemeni Human Rights Minister Alia al-Shaabi strongly condemned the brutal assault of Riyadh and its allies on a school children's bus on Thursday, stating that the Saudi-led coalition sees Yemeni women and children as strategic targets.

"The Saudi aggressors have made the Yemeni people, children, old men and women as military targets," she said, adding that "we welcome the condemnations of international organizations and the United Nations for the crime and call for the formation of an impartial and independent international commission of inquiry".

Al-Shaabi revealed that the missile used by the coalition to hit the bus carrying Yemeni kids was exactly the same type which killed some 140 people at a funeral ceremony in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, in 2016, and was made in the United States.

At least 140 people were killed and more than 500 wounded in several airstrikes on a funeral reception in Sana'a in early October 2016, according to health officials. The death toll was one of the largest in any single incident since Saudi Arabia began military operations aganist against its impoverished Southern neighbor in March 2015.

Al-Shaabi's point of view on the issue echoes an Ansarullah official's remarks who said the bombs used by the Riyadh-led coalition on Thursday attack was made in the US and was MK-82 which had earlier been used to pound a wedding ceremony in Hajjah province and a prison in al-Zaidiyeh.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had described the war in Yemen as a “war on children”, given the extensive damage that the conflict has caused to children in Yemen.

It also stressed that 2017 was the worst year for the children in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen since March 2015 to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 17,500 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.

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

Reports by independent world bodies have warned that the Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen has driven the impoverished country towards humanitarian disaster, as Saudi Arabia's deadly campaign prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country.

Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with more than 22 million people in need and is seeing a spike in needs, fuelled by ongoing conflict, a collapsing economy and diminished social services and livelihoods.

A UN panel has compiled a detailed report of civilian casualties caused by the Saudi military and its allies during their war against Yemen, saying the Riyadh-led coalition has used precision-guided munitions in its raids on civilian targets.

message end/