U.S. Sales to Saudi-Led Coalition Devastating Civilian Lives, Amnesty International Says

Amnesty International says that a recent Saudi-led coalition attack in Yemen, carried out with a U.S.-manufactured bomb, killed or injured at least six civilians and destroyed their home, the latest in a long string of potential war crimes the rights group has documented over the past three years.

“Three years on, Yemen’s conflict shows no real signs of abating, and all sides continue to inflict horrific suffering on the civilian population. Schools and hospitals lie in ruins, thousands have lost their lives and millions are displaced and in dire need of humanitarian aid,” said Lynn Maalouf, Director of Research for the Middle East at Amnesty International.

“There is extensive evidence that irresponsible arms flows to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition have resulted in enormous harm to Yemeni civilians. But this has not deterred the USA, the UK and other states, including France, Spain and Italy, from continuing transfers of billions of dollars’ worth of such arms,” she added, according to Reuters.

Witnesses to the assault say that the site was at least 3km from any military object and no fighters were present at the time. Amnesty International analyzed a video from the aftermath of the airstrike and confirmed that the munition used was a GBU-12 laser-guided 500-pound bomb manufactured in the USA by Lockheed Martin.

Amnesty further said that Western arms sales to Saudi Arabia made “mockery” of global arms trade treaty and accused the Iran-allied Houthis of committing potential war crimes in the three-year Yemen war, Reuters writes.

Saudi Arabia and its allies have repeatedly denied allegations of war crimes and say their campaign is directed against Houthi fighters and not civilians. The Houthi movement has also denied accusations of war crimes.

Amnesty said that as the conflict enters its fourth year it shows no real signs of abating and that all sides were impeding the delivery of humanitarian aid to at least 22.2 million people in need of assistance and more than one million suffering from suspected cases of cholera.

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