Saudi fighter jets have reportedly used cluster bombs in their fresh attacks against border areas in Yemen’s northwestern province of Sa’ada as Riyadh pushes ahead with a military onslaught against its impoverished southern neighbor.
On Monday afternoon, Saudi warplanes dropped cluster munitions in populated areas close to the border with the oil-rich Persian Gulf kingdom, Arabic-language al-Masirah satellite television network reported.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a report published on May 31, announced that evidence shows Saudi Arabia has been pounding Yemen with internationally banned cluster bombs, warning that such attacks are “harming civilians.”
The rights body also posted photos showing remnants of cluster munitions and unexploded sub-munitions found in several areas, including al-Nushoor and al-Maqash in Sa’ada, noting that three types of cluster bombs have been used in the Saudi attacks.
A Yemeni man from the area of Marran in Sa’ada told the HRW that he was injured in a cluster bomb attack, explaining that the weapon “first explodes in the air, and then explodes many times on the ground.”
The remains of a hotel destroyed in a Saudi airstrike on May 31, 2015 in Al-Thawra sport city located north of the capital Sana'a. (AFP Photo)
Elsewhere in Yemen, 14 people lost their lives and scores of others sustained injuries on Monday when Saudi military aircraft struck a passenger bus traveling on a road in the southwestern Yemeni province of Lahij.
Four other civilians, including two children, were also killed and several injured as Saudi jets hit Sahar district of Sa'ada Province.
Moreover, Saudi warplanes bombarded al-Kadaf district, located 138 kilometers (86 miles) northwest of the capital, Sana'a, and nearby Wadi al-Haraz region in the northwestern Yemeni province of Hajjah on Monday. However, there was no immediate report of possible casualties and the extent of the inflicted damage.
Earlier on Monday, Saudi forces fired a number of missiles into Ghamar district of Sa'ada. There is no word, yet, on possible casualties and damage.
Destruction is seen at an oil installation following Saudi airstrikes on the northern outskirts of Aden, Yemen, on June 4, 2015. (© AFP)
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed as a result of the conflict in Yemen since March 19, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Saudi Arabia began its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 – without a UN mandate – in a bid to undermine Houthi revolutionaries and bring fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi back to power.
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed and 7,330 injured due to the conflict in Yemen since March 19, according to the United Nation.
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