Alwaght | News & Analysis Website

Alwaght-A human rights group says the Saudi Arabian regime is violating international laws in its brutal attacks on Yemen while the US is also potentially liable for war crimes as it is providing logistical to the Saudis.
Human Rights Watch says airstrikes carried out by a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen that killed dozens in the northern city of Saada were a breach of international laws of war.
“These attacks appear to be serious laws-of-war violations that need to be properly investigated,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Human Rights Watch’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, said Tuesday as the group released its report.
The report investigated a dozen airstrikes between April 6 and May 11 that killed 59 people – 14 women and 35 children.
The Human Rights Watch report highlights that under the laws of war civilians may never be targeted deliberately.
“Attacks that fail to discriminate between civilians and combatants or that cause civilian harm disproportionate to the expected military gain of an attack are prohibited,” the report said. “Warring parties are required to take precautionary measures to minimize incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, and damage to civilian objects. This includes avoiding the deployment of forces in densely populated areas.”
The report, which drew on 28 interviews with eyewitnesses and relatives of victims as well as analysis of satellite imagery, says Saudi airstrikes hit at least six houses in the city of Saada, in an area of Yemen that is home to the Ansarullah resistance movement, whose advance across the country triggered the Saudi bombing campaign.
Human Rights Watch said it found no evidence that the houses were being used for military purposes. The group said Saudi Arabia had not responded to a May 20 letter seeking information on the intended targets of the airstrikes.
“In at least two of these attacks, munitions dropped from coalition aircraft struck the houses more than once, suggesting that they were the intended targets,” the report said.
It also found that coalition aircraft attacked and seriously damaged at least five main markets in Saada.
“As with the residential houses, multiple strikes on some of the markets suggest that they were the intended targets,” the report said. “Markets are normally civilian objects and should not be attacked. Human Rights Watch saw no evidence indicating that the markets had been used for military purposes, such as for the storage of significant munitions.”

Human Rights Watch also note that the US is potentially liable in the unlawful strikes as it is involved in refueling warplanes flying over Yemen and in providing targeting information for the Saudis.
The rights group investigators found evidence at the scene of the strikes that U.S.-made bombs were used in the attacks.
At a government building in Saada, Human Rights Watch said, it photographed “the remnants of an MK-83 air-dropped 1,000-pound bomb made in the U.S.”
The United States is not a member of the Saudi-led coalition but has provided logistical support, including aerial refueling for attack aircraft.
The report also concluded that a Saudi military spokesman’s declaration that the entire cities of Saada and Marran were military targets was “a clear violation of the laws of war.” Brig. Gen. Ahmed al Assiri made the declaration May 8.

The report comes one day after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned airstrikes that targeted a U.N. compound in Aden on Sunday causing serious damage to the U.N. Development Program office and injured a guard in the southern city of Aden.
“The secretary general calls for a full investigation into this incident and that anyone found to be responsible for any breaches be held to account,” Farhan Haq, a deputy spokesman for the UN chief, said on Monday.
Saudi Arabia started its brutal war on Yemen on March 26th with the stated objective of to weakening the popular Ansarullah movement and restore power to the fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a puppet Riyadh.
Meanwhile Yemeni forces have fired several missiles on Saudi military bases in the southwestern Jizan border region as part of retaliatory strikes against Saudi Arabia for its ongoing aggression against the impoverished country.
Reports say Yemen’s Ansarullah fighters backed by forces of the popular committees managed to launch the fresh attacks against the military facilities late on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, the Yemeni army, backed by Ansarullah fighters, also pounded a Saudi airbase in Saudi Arabia's second-largest province of al-Riyadh with a Scud missile.
Yemenis have already warned of more missile strikes if the Saudi regime does not halt its attacks against their country.
According to Yemen's Freedom House Foundation, since the start of the Saudi aggression over 4,000 Yemenis have lost their lives while more than 10,000 others have been wounded.
The US-backed Saudi regime has totally ignored international calls to stop the vicious aggression on its southern impoverished neighbor especially during the Holy Month of Ramadan.