Alwaght- Yemenis condemned the latest Saudi airstrikes against hospitals and medical centers in the capital Sana’a as “war crimes”, calling on international organizations to intervene and implement a cessation of hostilities.
Spokesman for the Supreme Council for the Administration and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Talat al-Sharjabi, said on Friday that the Saudi aerial attacks, which deliberately target medical facilities, constitute war crimes and are meant to increase the suffering of the Yemeni nation.”
“As the Saudi-led coalition intensifies its attacks on Sana’a, we have complained to international institutions about the decrease in delivery of humanitarian aid to poor people and Yemeni hospitals,” he noted.
Director General of the Public Health and Population Office in Sana’a Dr. Mutahar al-Marwani also deplored the Saudi airstrikes on hospitals as a deliberate attempt to put pressure on the Yemeni health sector, which is currently suffering from the devastating Saudi war and brutal siege.
He said all medical diagnostic imaging centers are closed down in Sana’a, and thousands of patients have been adversely affected as a result.
Early on Friday, Saudi warplanes targeted an area close to al-Alia Medical Center in the Yemeni capital, severely damaging nearby buildings.
A medical source, who preferred not to be named, told Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that the strikes had caused panic and fear among patients and medical staff.
The source added that the Saudi strikes put the medical center out of service.
Three Yemeni civilians killed in new airstrikes
On Saturday, Saudi warplanes carried out a fresh wave of airstrikes against various areas across Yemen, killing at least three civilians.
The fighter jets struck a facility belonging to the Public Telecommunications Corporation in the western province of Mahwit Saturday, leaving six others injured, al-Masirah TV reported.
Saudi military aircraft also targeted Mahazer area in the Sahar district of Yemen’s northwestern province of Sa’ada, but there were no immediate reports about possible casualties and the extent of damage.
Saudi Arabia, backed by the United States and regional allies, launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi back to power and crushing popular Ansarullah resistance movement.
The war has left hundreds of thousands of Yemenis dead, and displaced millions more. It has also destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure and spread famine and infectious diseases there.
Despite heavily-armed Saudi Arabia’s incessant bombardment of the impoverished country, the Yemeni armed forces and the Popular Committees have grown steadily in strength against the Saudi-led invaders and left Riyadh and its allies bogged down in the country.
