Alwaght-New evidence shows Saudi Arabia-led military coalition has used more rockets containing banned cluster munitions in Yemen.
According to repret released by Amnesty International late Wednesday, Saudi Arabia-led aggressors recently fired Brazilian-manufactured rockets containing banned cluster munitions in the middle of Sa’da city in Yemen, injuring two civilians and causing material damage.
According to Amnesty International, the attack, striking three residential areas and surrounding farmland at 10.30pm on 15 February, is the third confirmed use of Brazilian cluster munitions documented by the rights in the last 16 months.
An eye witness, Latifa Ahmed Mu’eed, 22, described the attack in Ahfad Bilal, which took place while she was asleep at home. She was with her husband Talal al-Shihri, her three-month old son, Hasan, and three-year old son, Hussain:
“The bomb came into the house, into the bedroom from the ceiling. There is a big round hole in the ceiling. At the time, we heard a big explosion and seconds later the bomb exploded in the room and we got hurt. Three exploded right outside the house … The children were unhurt but in shock … My husband sustained shrapnel injuries on his foot. I hurt my left foot and we went to al-Salam hospital that very night.”
Earlier in 2016, Amnesty had discovered the use by the Saudi-led coalition of the UK-manufactured BL-755 in northern Yemen. One UK cluster bomb had apparently malfunctioned and left scores of deadly unexploded “bomblets” strewn over a wide area near a farm in Al-khadhra village in Hajjah governorate, six miles from the Saudi Arabia border.
Last December, the Saudi regime admitted to the use of banned cluster bombs during its relentless airstrikes on Yemen.
“It has become apparent that there was limited use by the coalition of the UK-manufactured BL755 cluster munitions in Yemen,” said a spokesman for the Saudi forces in Yemen, Ahmed al-Asiri.
The Saudi regime commenced its illegal war on Yemen in late March 2015, an agression which as so far claimed the lives of nearly 12,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians including women and children. Multiple rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have on various occasions reported the use of illegal cluster bombs by the kingdom in Yemen.
Late January this year, United Nations sanctions monitors reported that, the Saudi-led military coalition has carried out attacks in Yemen that may amount to war crimes.
