UNICEF Condemns Saudi-Led Airstrike on Yemeni Children

TEHRAN (Defapress)- “I had hoped that the outrage that followed the Sa’ada attack in Yemen two weeks ago would be a turning point in the conflict. Yesterday’s reported attacks in Durayhimi, killing 26 children, indicate that it was not,” Henrietta Fore, the UNICEF executive director, said in a statement on Friday.

“I – once again – call for the warring parties, those who have influence over them, the UN Security Council and the international community to take action and end this conflict once and for all,” she further stated, adding that the lives of thousands of “vulnerable children” all over the war-torn country “must be a priority for all".

The carnage took place in Durayhimi city on Thursday, when a Saudi-led strike hit a civilian vehicle, killing 31 people, mostly children. The attack came about two weeks after a Saudi-led warplane hit a school bus in the Northern province of Sa’ada, killing a total of 51 people, including 40 children, and leaving nearly 80 others wounded. 

Munitions experts confirmed that a bomb used by the Saudi-led coalition in recent attack on a school bus in Yemen's Sa'ada that killed dozens of children had been supplied by the United States.

The experts told CNN that the bomb was a 227-kilogram laser-guided Mark 82 bomb, noting that the numbers on the weapon identified major US military contractor Lockheed Martin as its maker.

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.

The imposed war initially consisted of a bombing campaign, but was later coupled with a naval blockade and the deployment of ground forces to Yemen.

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.

Several Western countries, the United States and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.

message end/