Were USA, Britain and France complicit in this slaughter of children?
By Sommer Brokaw
Yemenis inspected a destroyed bus at the site of a Saudi-led coalition airstrike on Aug. 10, a day after the strike hit the bus, which was carrying children at Dhahyan market in the northern province of Saada, Yemen. A coalition investigative team has since admitted the attack was not justified. Photo by Stringer/EPA-EFE
(UPI) -- A Saudi-led coalition investigative team said Saturday a coalition airstrike that hit a school bus in Yemen killing dozens of children last month was not justified.
The Aug. 9 Saudi-led coalition airstrike in Dhahyan market in the northern province of Saada, Yemen, killed at least 50 people, mostly children, and injured 77, the ministry said, CNN reported.
Mansour al-Mansour, official spokesman of the Arab Coalition's Joint Incident Assessment Team, said at press conference Saturday that video from the plane that conducted the strike was analyzed for the report.
Saudi Arabia's official news agency initially reported that the strike was a legitimate military action in retaliation to a Houthi ballistic missile attack and Mansour maintained Saturday it was still a legitimate military target because it had Houthi leaders and led to the killing of a number of Houthi leaders. However, he also admitted that "the raid on Dhahyan does not comply with the coalition's rules of engagement," because the bombing was not justified at the time, since the target was not a threat to the coalition forces.
So, the target was not a threat at that moment so it did not comply with the coalition's rules of engagement. The fact that several dozen children were on the bus did not de-legitimize the attack, but only that they were not deemed to be an immediate threat. Perhaps if the bus had been going in the other direction it would have qualified as a justifiable target. In other words, the dozens of children massacred in this horrific act were of no consequence whatsoever. Sounds like Islam, doesn't it? It also sounds like we can expect many more dozens of children to be blown to bits thanks to mindless, military men.
Mansour also called on the coalition to hold those responsible for mistakes in Dhahyan raid responsible.
In response, the Saudi and United Arab Emirates coalition agreed Saturday with the report and pledged to "hold the ones who committed mistakes accountable."
Like that's going to happen. Someone is going to pay, but it certainly won't be those who are really responsible.
The attack led to widespread condemnation.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the airstrike and offered condolences for the families of the victims. He called on all parties involved in the Yemen civil war to respect international humanitarian law and called for an independent investigation.
Following the bus attack, some Congress members called on the U.S. military to clarify its role in the war and investigate whether support for the air raid could render American military personnel "liable under the war crimes act."
The Saudi coalition, which has had U.S., French and British logistical and intelligence support, has carried out strikes in Yemen to reinstate the internationally recognized presidency of Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi, whom rebels drove into exile three years ago.
So, Congress is worried that the US could be held liable for war crimes. They are not, apparently, concerned about actually committing war crimes, only that they might be held liable. Is there no-one who has a guilty conscience about the massacre of dozens of children? Incredible! Is the massacre of dozens of children now considered acceptable collateral damage?
The United Nations' human rights agency said in a report Tuesday that parties to the civil war in Yemen may have committed war crimes over the three years. At least 6,660 civilians have been killed and more than 10,500 injured in the conflict, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Yemen, also reeling from a multi-year cholera epidemic that's killed more than 2,300, has the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world, humanitarian agency Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere said.
"Since [2015], 22.2 million people are now in need of humanitarian assistance, among which 11.3 million are in acute need of immediate assistance to save or sustain life, mostly women and children," the group said.
In June alone, the coalition carried out 258 air raids on Yemen, nearly one-third of which targeted non-military sites.
Isn't it always women and children who pay for the insanity of men?
Dhahyan, Yemen
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