CAIRO \u2014\u00a0American- and British-made bombs may have killed or injured nearly 1,000 civilians, including women and children, in Yemen\u2019s four-year conflict, according to\u00a0a report\u00a0released Wednesday by human rights groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The airstrikes killed 203 people and injured at least 749, the report found. At least 122 children and 56 women were among the dead and wounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. and British lawmakers have mounted efforts to stop arms sales and end their countries\u2019 involvement in Yemen\u2019s civil war, which has created what the United Nations describes as the world\u2019s most severe humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United States, in particular, has sold billions of dollars in weaponry to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, its key allies in the Middle East. Both nations lead a regional coalition that seeks to oust northern rebels known as Houthis and restore Yemen\u2019s internationally recognized government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Washington is also assisting the coalition with intelligence, training and other forms of logistical support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Pentagon spokeswoman said the United States does not investigate airstrikes by the coalition, but \u201cwe have consistently discussed and reinforced procedures to limit civilian casualties.\u201d’We lost our minds that day’: A Yemeni village copes with the aftermath of an airstrike<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Post\u2019s Sudarsan Raghavan visited Raqah, a remote village in northern Yemen, about a month after it was hit by an airstrike. The attack killed 22 people. (Sudarsan Raghavan, Lorenzo Tugnoli, Joyce Lee\/The Washington Post)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have repeatedly urged the Saudi-led coalition to address shortcomings in their operations that have led to civilian casualties, and have worked with them to develop procedures and oversight mechanisms to reduce such incidents,\u201d said Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In their 128-page report, the U.S.-based University Network for Human Rights and a well-known Yemeni rights group, Mwatana, probed 27 coalition airstrikes between April 2015 and April 2018 \u2014 all against civilian targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 25 of the assaults, investigators determined that U.S.-made munitions, including banned cluster bombs, were likely to have been used. In five of the strikes, British-made weaponry appears to have been deployed, the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were 16 airstrikes on civilian gatherings or homes, five on educational and health facilities, five on civilian businesses and one on a government cultural center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur findings reinforce prior evidence demonstrating that the Saudi\/UAE-led Coalition is failing to fulfill its obligations under the laws of war and repeatedly using US weapons in apparently disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks that have resulted in widespread civilian casualties and other civilian harm in Yemen,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The findings hint at the real civilian toll of the war. From March 2015 to April 2016 alone, more than 18,000 coalition airstrikes pounded Yemen, nearly a third striking civilian targets, according to the Yemen Data Project, an independent monitoring group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report strongly suggested that the air assaults could be unlawful under international law and constitute potential war crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMany of the attacks appeared to take place far from any potential military target,\u201d the report said. \u201cOthers caused harm to civilians that vastly outweighed any likely military benefit. In no case did it appear that coalition forces took adequate precautions to minimize harm to civilians, as required by international humanitarian law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition did not respond to a request for comment, but the coalition has frequently denied allegations that it is targeting civilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2017, the coalition said it would launch a training program to reduce what it described as accidental targeting of civilians. But those pledges fell short. In the year since the announcement, civilian deaths were 7 percent higher than the previous year, according to United Nations data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To continue reading, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CAIRO \u2014\u00a0American- and British-made bombs may have killed or injured nearly 1,000 civilians, including women and children, in Yemen\u2019s four-year conflict, according to\u00a0a report\u00a0released Wednesday by human rights groups.\u00a0 The airstrikes killed 203 people and injured at least 749, the report found. At least 122 children and 56 women were among the dead and wounded. U.S. and British lawmakers have… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[51,12],"class_list":["post-3404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-united-states","tag-yemen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3405,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404\/revisions\/3405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}