Saudi-led coalition to probe Yemen air raid
12 August, 2018
A Saudi-led Arab military coalition said on Friday it would investigate an airstrike that killed dozens of children in Yemen, an apparent shift of stance on an attack Riyadh has portrayed as a legitimate action against its Houthi foes.
At least 40 children were killed in Thursday’s strike on a bus in northern Yemen, the armed Houthi group which controls Yemen’s capital said. That raised the toll of children killed in the raid from 29.
The strike by the Western-backed alliance of Arab countries outraged human rights groups and was strongly condemned by U.N. officials. Henrietta Fore, executive director of UNICEF, said the “horrific” attack marked “a low point in [Yemen’s] brutal war.”
People in Saada started to dig graves in preparation for funerals to be held on Saturday.
“God may give us patience,” said Hussein Hussein Tayeb, who lost three sons on the bus, on a trip with other pupils to visit a mosque and tombs.
“I was one of the first to arrive on the scene, seeking to rescue the wounded; I lifted a body and I found that it was Ahmed’s face. I hugged him, he was my son.”
Ahmed was 11. His brothers Yusef and Ali were 14 and 9.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for an independent investigation of the raid that hit the bus as it drove through a market in Dahyan, a town in the Houthis’ home province of Saada.
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