Bits and Bites from Around the World > Mexican Mayor Marries Alligator; Starving Lions Eat their own Tail; Frogs Married in India

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Mexican mayor marries an alligator, in century-old ritual

to pray for abundance

‘Alligator bride’ is believed to be a deity representing mother earth

Published:  July 01, 2022 12:19

Reuters

  

Image Credit: YouTube screen grab

Mexico: A small town Mexican mayor married his alligator bride in a colorful ceremony as traditional music rang out and revelers danced while imploring the indigenous leader to seal the nuptials with a kiss.

San Pedro Huamelula Mayor Victor Hugo Sosa obliged more than once during Thursday's wedding, bending down to plant his lips on the small alligator's snout, which had been tied shut presumably to avoid unwanted biting.

The ritual marriage likely dates back centuries to pre-Hispanic times among Oaxaca state's Chontal and Huave indigenous communities, like a prayer pleading for nature's bounty.

"We ask nature for enough rain, for enough food, that we have fish in the river," said Sosa, mayor of the small fishing village on Oaxaca's steamy Pacific coast. Oaxaca, located in Mexico's poor south, is arguably the country's richest in indigenous culture and home to many groups that have stubbornly maintained their languages and traditions.

Oaxaca, located in Mexico's poor south, is arguably the country's richest in indigenous culture and home to many groups that have stubbornly maintained their languages and traditions.

The age-old ritual in San Pedro Huamelula, now mixed with Catholic spirituality, involves dressing the alligator or caiman in a white wedding dress plus other colorful garments.

The seven-year-old reptile, referred to as a little princess, is believed to be a deity representing mother earth, and her marriage to the local leader symbolizes the joining of humans with the divine. As trumpets blared and drums provided a festive beat, locals carried the alligator bride in their arms through village streets as men fanned it with their hats.

"It gives me so much happiness and makes me proud of my roots," said Elia Edith Aguilar, known as the godmother who organized the wedding. She said that she feels privileged to be entrusted with carrying out the ceremony, and noted she spent a lot of time fretting over what the bride would wear.

"It's a very beautiful tradition," she added with a smile.

Yeah, the bride is just lovely!

San Pedro Huamelula, MX

Horror as starving lions forced to eat their own TAILS at zoo

where ‘remains of hundreds of big cats found’

Olivia Burke

18:06, 9 Jul 2022

A PRIDE of starving lions were forced to eat their own TAILS at a horror zoo where they were kept in torturous conditions.

Footage of the gaunt animals at the Black Jaguar-White Tiger Foundation in Tlalpan, Mexico City, has sparked international outrage.

The lions at the Black Jaguar-White Tiger Foundation resorted to chewing their own tails

Animals at the hellish zoo were so weak they could barely stand

The remains of hundreds of big cats have also allegedly been discovered dumped in a mass grave at the disgraced wildlife refuge.

The majestic creatures were seen looking frail and depressed as they forlornly paced around their cramped metal cages.

Mexican actor Arturo Islas Allende, 35, helped publicise the untold agony of the lions, branding their treatment "a holocaust".

He also accused the owner of the foundation, Eduardo Mauricio Moises Serio, of illegally selling and breeding lion, tiger, jaguar and leopard cubs.

Harrowing video shows the emaciated lions collapsing in their small cages in the blistering heat, while others sport agonising sores over their bodies.

The constant lack of food and nutrition has saw some of the animals gnaw at their own tails in sheer desperation.

A former employee at the hellish zoo, activist Yael Ruiz, first reported the foundation to the authorities after working there for two years.

She says the big cats began eating their tails "out of anxiety" after being forced to live in monstrous conditions.

Arturo complained he just "doesn't understand how for so long, no one has done anything" to put a stop to the suffering of the animals.

He said: "The place is now under the control of the authorities, the owner is a fugitive from justice, he has not appeared anywhere.

"We have just had a meeting with the Mexico City authorities so veterinarians can start rescuing the emaciated animals. The foundation did not have the correct papers or legal permits, the reality is it was completely clandestine."

Horrified inspectors have since reportedly found pits with what they believe are the bones and remains of more than 200 big cats.

Arturo continued: "There are pits with the bones of buried animals.

"The foundation said they had 400 felines, yesterday a count was carried out with the authorities and only between 180 and 190 are accounted for, less than half of them."

There are pits with the bones of buried animals.

Arturo Islas Allende

The actor also claimed that employees have not been paid for months before the evil owner scarpered.

He added: "The owner also did not pay the rent and has outstanding bills of around MXN 1 million (£40,612).

"The foundation received millions of dollars in donations that did not reach the animals and is linked to tax evasion.

"The breeding of cubs was ongoing.

"The reality is, the foundation placed animals in the hands of buyers and, over time, they became a problem for the customers and we (were?) sent back to the same cages."

Animal rights groups have slammed the horrific treatment of the lions at the Black Jaguar-White Tiger Foundation.

The refuge, which ironically claims to rescue animals from harsh conditions at breeding centres and circuses, has been reported to the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA).

One animal rights group - AZCARM - accused the foundation owner of "abandoning and mistreating hundreds of big cats".

The surviving lions will undergo a medical evaluation and are expected to be rehomed at other zoos in the Mexican capital.

The investigation continues.

India: Frogs married in Gorakhpur to appease rain god

The 'wedding' was held on Tuesday night with all rituals

Published:  July 20, 2022 07:47

IANS

  

The people at the wedding had a tough time keeping the frog couple in place

Image Credit: Twitter@ANI

Gorakhpur: A group of people organised a wedding of frogs to appease the rain god, Lord Indra.

The 'wedding' was held on Tuesday night with all rituals.

Radhakant Verma, who organised the event, said, "It is a time-tested belief that frog weddings are held to bring in rains. We have had a long dry spell and farmers, in particular, are upset over the delay in sowing paddy."

The people at the wedding had a tough time keeping the frog couple in place and scores of people witnessed the event when all mantras and shlokas were chanted by a group of priests.

The guests were later treated to dinner by the organisers.

This Week's Global Terrorist Stories 20-2 - USA, Middle East, Scandinavia, South Asia, Africa

FBI Arrests 3 Alleged Members Of White Supremacist Group Ahead Of Richmond Rally

BILL CHAPPELL, NPR

Matthews and The Base at Silver Creek, Ga

The FBI has arrested three alleged members of The Base — which authorities describe as a "racially motivated violent extremist group" — on charges that range from illegal transport of a machine gun to harboring aliens, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland.

A law enforcement official tells NPR that the three suspected members of The Base had discussed going to a controversial pro-gun rally in Virginia next week.

The three men are Brian Mark Lemley Jr., 33, of Elkton, Md.; William Garfield Bilbrough IV, 19, of Denton, Md.; and Canadian national Patrik Jordan Mathews, 27, who entered the U.S. illegally last summer. Mathews and Lemley had recently been living in Newark, Del.

The arrests come days before a pro-gun demonstration that's slated to take place in Richmond, Va., on Monday — and just after Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency and banned firearms on the Capitol grounds in Richmond in anticipation of the gun rights demonstration.

"We have received credible intelligence from our law enforcement agencies that there are groups with malicious plans for the rally that is planned for Monday," Northam said Wednesday afternoon.

Three more suspected members of white supremacist group arrested

BY CAROLINE LINTON

CBS NEWS

Three more suspected members of the violent white supremacist group "The Base" have been arrested in Georgia, authorities said Friday. The men are accused of plotting to overthrow the government and planning to murder a Bartow County couple.

Luke Austin Lane, 21, was arrested near his home on Wednesday without incident and is being housed at the Floyd County Jail pending charges of conspiracy to commit murder and participation, officials said. He was denied bond.

Michael John Helterbrand, 25, of Dalton, and Jacob Kaderli, 19, of Dacula, were arrested in different locations. Kaderli has been sent to Floyd County facilities and Helterbrand expected to arrive on Friday. They were also charged with conspiracy to commit murder and participation in a criminal street gang.

The group of men were allegedly involved in recruiting new members online for "The Base," meeting to discuss strategy and practicing in paramilitary training camps on a 100-acre tract in Silver Creek, officials said. The members are described in arrest documents as being part of a "racially motivated, violent extremist group that sought to 'accelerate the downfall of the United States government, incite a race war and establish a white ethno-state.'"

Sweden suffers surge in bomb attacks

as gang violence rises

Some may dispute that gang violence is terrorism; certainly Swedish authorities will not count it as such considering they have been protecting Swedes from knowing the real violence that Muslim migrants brought with them. Drug gangs who commit extortion and blow up cars and businesses are not native to Sweden; they have been imported like other terrorist attacks.

Simon Johnson

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A surge in drug-linked gang-violence in Sweden led to a 60% increase in bomb blasts in 2019, government statistics showed on Thursday, as police work to rid the streets of explosives and guns with more officers on patrol.

FILE PHOTO: Police work on the site where an explosion damaged a residential building in central Stockholm, Sweden January 13, 2020. Janerik Henriksson/TT News Agency/via REUTERS

Sweden has been hit by a wave of shootings and bombings over the past couple of years which police have linked to gang conflicts in major cities, shocking Swedes, who have long considered their country one of the safest in the world.

Some 257 bomb attacks were reported to police last year, up from 162 the previous year, the statistics from the National Council for Crime Prevention showed.

That's about 2 every 3 days, up from 1 every 2 days. At this rate there will be one every day this year.

The agency did not give any information about the types of explosives used most frequently or any other details, but Swedish media have reported some attacks using make-shift bombs made from vacuum flasks packed with explosive material.

The figures were part of a report on crime rates which showed that overall, the number of crimes reported to the police was slightly down last year.

A total of more than 1.5 million crimes were reported in Sweden in 2019, representing only a very slight overall change from the previous year. But there were still significant changes, including an increase in rapes, drugs-related crimes, vandalism, and a decrease in home break-ins and thefts.  The Local

The public outcry over increased violence has forced the government to boost spending on the police and to launch a programme to fight organised crime as law and order becomes one of the main political battlefields.

“The government has provided extra resources and the police are taking concerted measures now against gang violence,” Minister for Home Affairs Mikael Damberg said in an emailed comment to Reuters. "With the efforts we are making, I am convinced that we can turn this around. Society is stronger than these criminal gangs.”

You guys keep saying that and then you invite in those completely foreign to your society. Your society is not what it once was; you have changed it forever.

Opposition politicians, however, have blamed the government for years of inaction.

“This government has lost control over crime in Sweden. We have seen in recent years how the number of fatalities has increased. Now bomb blasts are also increasing in a way that lacks international equivalence,” said Ulf Kristersson, leader of opposition party the Moderates.

Police have identified around 60 deprived areas, mainly in and around larger cities, where unemployment is high, incomes low and where drugs and gangs have gained a firm foothold.

In November, they set up the task force to fight violent crime following the death of a 15-year-old boy in Malmo when a gunman open fire on a pizza restaurant.

At the time, the police said the task force would focus on getting criminals off the streets, reducing access to guns and explosives and increasing the police presence in affected areas.

However, they said the problems were impossible to solve by the police alone. “There is no silver bullet. There is no simple solution to complex problems,” Stefan Hector, the head of the task force, said in November.

An explosion on Sunday in one of Stockholm’s most high-end neighbourhoods destroyed part of a residential building and several cars parked outside. The blast could be heard several kilometres away. No one was injured.

In a separate incident, in June, 20 people were wounded when a bomb exploded on a residential street in Linkoping in southern Sweden.

Reporting by Simon Johnson; Additional reporting by Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Niklas Pollard and Alison Williams

Explosive balloon cluster reaches Jerusalem,

devices upgraded, more deadly

Explosive balloon cluster reaches Jerusalem, devices upgraded, more deadlyGaza terrorists prepare fire balloons.
(TPS/Majdi Fathi)

The explosive devices are upgraded and are equipped with elements to increase casualties among the civilian population.

By Aryeh Savir, TPS

A cluster of balloons tied to an explosive device that was launched by terrorists from the Gaza Strip landed on Monday in the town of Mesilat Zion, just a short drive away from Jerusalem.

A police sapper who was alerted to scene safely dismantled the explosive charge, with no injuries or damage.

Police again reminded the public that extreme caution should be exercised when encountering such suspicious objects, kites and balloons, which may be connected to explosives or flammable materials and may “endanger public peace if it is not dealt with responsibility.”

The explosive and flammable balloon attacks have returned to haunt Israel’s residents in the south in the past week after several months in which such attacks from Gaza ceased.

The explosive devices are upgraded and are equipped with elements to increase casualties among the civilian population.

The IDF estimates that the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization is responsible for the renewed rocket fire and the explosive balloons attacks.

The terrorists have vowed to continue with these airborne attacks.

The IDF responded to Thursday’s attacks with a strike against Hamas targets in Gaza but has since not responded to the attacks in the following days.

Norwegian libertarian party quits government leaving coalition without majority over ISIS bride repatriation

Norway's Progress party leader and Finance Minister Siv Jensen speaks during a news conference in Oslo © Fredrik Varfjell

Norway’s Progress Party has quit the country’s coalition government after a jihadist bride and her children were allowed to return from Syria. The move leaves the remaining coalition partners ruling in a minority.

Finance Minister Siv Jensen announced the resignation of her Progress Party on Monday, after a woman suspected of marrying two Islamic State jihadists in Syria was given assistance to return to Norway over the weekend. The Norwegian government aided the woman’s return out of concern for the welfare of her children, but Jensen’s party had vehemently opposed any repatriation for Islamist fighters or their spouses.

“I brought us into government, and now I’m bringing the party out,” Jensen told reporters on Monday, adding that her Conservative, Liberal, and Christian Democratic coalition partners had forced her to make “too many compromises” to her platform of tax cuts and immigration restrictions.

Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg said that she will remain in office as head of a minority coalition, and will fill the seven cabinet posts left vacant after the Progress Party’s departure. Early elections are not allowed by Norway’s constitution, and voters will decide the next government in September 2021.

The alleged IS bride is of Pakistani origin, and left Norway for Syria in 2013. She is believed to have married a Norwegian-Chilean IS fighter that year. The fighter, Bastian Vasquez, threatened the Norwegian government in a video he posted to YouTube. Another IS propaganda video shows Vasquez admitting to multiple murders and blowing up a police station, supposedly with Iraqi soldiers inside.

The woman remarried after Vasquez’s death in 2015. She has been held in a refugee camp in northern Syria since last March, along with her five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter. The eldest child has a long-term illness, believed to be cystic fibrosis.

The decision to bring the woman and her children back to Norway was made last week on “humanitarian grounds,” Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide said.

Progress Party members greeted that announcement with derision. “The government negotiated with a terrorist,” lawmaker Roy Steffensen tweeted last week. “Terrorists won.”

Norway is not the only country to welcome back its IS spouses. Former Irish soldier Lisa Smith, who married an IS jihadist and moved to Syria in 2015, was returned to Dublin last month from Istanbul, where she had been living since her capture by Turkish forces. Smith was arrested upon arrival.

Other European countries have been more reluctant to repatriate jihadists and their families – to the consternation of American and Turkish authorities, who are holding many of the captured fighters in Middle-Eastern prison camps.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly chastised European leaders for not taking back the captured jihadis. “Would you like some nice ISIS fighters?” he asked at a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron last month. "I can give them to you. You can take everyone you want.”

The Norwegian woman was arrested upon her return, and faces up to six years in prison if found guilty of participating in a terrorist organization.

Wreckage found - likely bombed Korean Air flight from 1987

By Elizabeth Shim

Korean Air Flight 858 was not recovered following its midair explosion on November 29, 1987,

but a South Korean network said Thursday they may have found the wreckage. File Photo by UPI

(UPI) -- A South Korean television network says the wreckage of Korean Air Flight 858, which exploded midair on Nov. 29, 1987, may have been found in the Andaman Sea near Myanmar following a yearlong investigation.

MBC reported Thursday the plane carrying 115 passengers and crew, bombed by North Korean spy Kim Hyon-hui, was never recovered following the attack.

The wreckage was detected using a 3D sonar. The South Korean television crew focused on an area after local fishermen spoke of a "large object" located about 164 feet beneath the water's surface.

The crew was able to identify a 33 foot-long wing-shaped object in the shadows of the seabed. An object that appeared to be an engine was also found, according to the report.

The fuselage of a plane, measuring about 90 feet long, was nearby as well, MBC reported. Other objects were crushed beyond recognition, but appeared to be debris and machine parts.

Kim Sung-jeon, a former civil aircraft pilot and aviation expert, told the network the wing-like object was likely the outside portion of the left wing of the plane.

Kim Hyon-hui, the North Korean terrorist who was captured then attempted suicide, confessed to planting the bomb on the flight. She later resettled in the South.

Kim was in the news in 2018 for attacking the families of perished victims, calling them pro-Pyongyang collaborators.

Seoul pardoned Kim more than three decades ago, but civic groups want more information on the attack, which is classified, according to Yonhap.

South Korean news service Tongil News has sued Seoul's national intelligence service for not disclosing more information. Plaintiffs say they want to know whether the attack was used for political purposes ahead of a presidential election in 1987.

Yikes, that's quite an accusation!

Grenades thrown at wedding party in Afghanistan wound 20

By Allen Cone

(UPI) -- Twenty wedding guests, including children, were wounded by hand grenades in eastern Afghanistan, police said Sunday.

The incident took place late Saturday in the Waris village of Ali Shir district in Afghanistan's eastern Khost province, which borders Pakistan, provincial police spokesman Haider Adi said in a report by Xinhua.

Unknown men entered the building.

The official said that an investigation had been initiated but no suspects or motive have been given.

Last August, a suicide bomber from the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan killed 63 people at a wedding in Kabul. That was the most deadly attack in the capital in 2019.

Elsewhere Saturday, a bystander was killed and four other civilians were wounded when a police vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in the capital, Kabul. Police said Sunday no group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Taliban has been linked to previous attacks on Afghanistan security forces.

19 Malian soldiers killed by armed men: Military

6 more killed last week

 Al Jazeera

Malian soldiers have come under repeated attacks from armed groups [File: Luc Gnago/Reuters] 

At least 19 soldiers were killed in an attack on a military post in central Mali on Sunday.

The attack took place in Sokolo military camp in the Segou region, where armed fighters linked to al-Qaeda are known to operate.

"The provisional toll is 19 dead, five wounded," Malian Armed Forces said on Twitter.

A local politician told AFP news agency all those killed were troops or paramilitary police officers, adding he saw "two other bodies outside the camp".

"They were well-armed. They entered the Sokolo camp. They took away a lot of material," he said, adding some were able to escape the camp.

The assault comes after a similar attack on Thursday by armed men in Dioungani, an area in the country's volatile Mopti region near the border with Burkina Faso, killing at least six soldiers.

"There were more than 100 attackers," said Sokolo resident Baba Gakou.

"They arrived at five in the morning. They cut off any withdrawal by the gendarmes. The firing stopped at 7am," he said, adding the assailants left with all the weapons and vehicles at the camp.

"They picked up all their dead. They did not touch anyone in the village."

Struggle with armed groups
Mali has struggled to contain an armed uprising that erupted in the north in 2012 and has killed thousands of soldiers and civilians in the years since.

More than 140 Malian soldiers reportedly died in attacks between September and December alone.

The conflict has engulfed the centre of the country and spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger - despite the presence of 4,500 French troops in the Sahel region, plus a 13,000-strong UN peacekeeping force.

On Wednesday, Mali announced it would hold legislative elections in late March after repeated postponements because of insecurity and political infighting.

The conduct of the elections was a key recommendation from crisis talks in December aimed at exploring non-military solutions to the worsening violence.

Three Jordanians charged for IS-inspired attack

City News, Vancouver

AMMAN, Jordan — Three Jordanian men appeared in court Sunday to face charges connected to the stabbing of eight people at a popular archaeological site in northern Jordan in November in an attack allegedly inspired by the Islamic State group.

The military judge presiding over the trial accused the men of supporting Islamic State ideology and carrying out the attack at Jerash to avenge the death of late IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

November’s incident took place in Jerash, one of Jordan’s most visited archaeological sites, an ancient city whose ruins include a Roman amphitheatre and a columned road.

Jordan relies heavily on incoming tourism. Islamist militant groups have repeatedly targeted the country’s tourist sites to impact the economy and embarrass the government.

Mustafa Abu Tuameh, 22, is accused of stabbing eight people, including one Swiss and three Mexican tourists, and four Jordanians. None of the victims suffered life-threatening wounds. Gruesome footage of the attack was captured by bystanders.

At the time of the attack, the Jordanian army’s news site identified Abu Tuameh as a resident of the nearby Palestinian refugee camp. Family members said he had recently become very religious and apparently planned to die in the attack.

But, apparently, they didn't bother to tell anyone.

Abu Tuameh and the two other defendants allegedly planned to carry out another attack on a church in northern Jordan.

Osama Abu-Amra, 22, faces charges of plotting a terrorist act, and attempting to join a terrorist organization. Khaled al-Soufi, 21, was charged with promoting the ideas of a terrorist organization.

The three defendants pleaded innocent to the charges. If convicted, they could face up to 15 years in prison.

The Associated Press

State Tells Christian Filmmakers: Must Service Same-Sex Marriages or None At All

The War on Christianity is Losing to Politically Correct Insanity

Steve Warren

Two Christian filmmakers appeared before the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Paul Tuesday to challenge Minnesota state law which they say illegally forces them to produce and create films expressing messages that contradict their core beliefs. 

Telescope Media Group owners Carl and Angel Larsen have already been threatened with hefty fines and up to 90 days in jail if they choose to disregard the law.

The Larsens want to enter the wedding industry. However, the state's Human Rights Act stipulates if the couple creates films celebrating their Christian beliefs about marriage – that marriage is between one man and one woman, they must also create films about marriage that violate their beliefs, including films promoting same-sex marriages.

Now, it's not clear what 'enter the wedding industry' means. Do they want to make individualized videos of wedding and create some kind of movie from that. Or, do they just want to be photographers and videographers. It would be nice to be a little more clear on that.

"The government shouldn't threaten filmmakers with fines and jail time to force them to create films that violate their beliefs," said ADF Senior Counsel Jeremy Tedesco in a press release. "Carl and Angel are storytellers – they script, stage, conduct interviews, capture footage, select music, edit and more – all to tell compelling stories through film that promote their religious beliefs." 

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Masterpiece that the government must respect the belief—held by countless Americans from all walks of life—that marriage is between one man and one woman," he continued. "The 8th Circuit should reinstate the Larsens' lawsuit and order the state to stop forcing the Larsens to speak messages about marriage that violate their beliefs."

In 2017, the Larsens tried to challenge the law as unconstitutional but a lower court dismissed their case and mandated that they service same-sex weddings or close this part of their business. They are now appealing to the 8th Circuit Court.

According to the ADF, Minnesota officials have repeatedly stated that private businesses such as the Larsens' violate the law if they decline to create films promoting same-sex weddings. Penalties for violation include payment of a civil penalty to the state; triple compensatory damages; punitive damages of up to $25,000; a criminal penalty of up to $1,000; and even up to 90 days in jail.

1/3 of Saudi Strikes Hit Yemeni Hospitals, Schools & Other Civilian Targets – Study

People stand on the rubble of a school destroyed by a Saudi-led air strike in an outskirt of the northwestern city of Saada, Yemen September 14, 2016. © Naif Rahma / Reuters

In five of the last 18 months of the Saudi-led war in Yemen, the coalition hit more non-military than military targets, a Guardian study has revealed. Overall more than one-third of all strikes ended up hitting civilian sites including hospitals, schools and mosques.

After analyzing public source data for some 8,600 air raids conducted by the Saudi-led coalition between March 2015 and August this year, the Yemen Data Project concluded that only 3,577 sites were of a military nature. Some 3,158 were listed as non-military, while 1,882 strikes were classified as unknown, the Guardian said in its analysis of the data.

Furthermore, the data which has been collected from open sources and cross-referenced by the NGO using a wide range of information showed that Saudis flew 942 air raids on residential areas. The planes managed to strike 114 markets, 34 mosques, and 147 school buildings, in addition to 26 universities. The information also revealed that Riyadh targeted transportation network, striking some 37 transport sites.

The Yemen Data Project said that the coalition hit more non-military sites than military in five of the last 18 months, with some target areas being struck on multiple occasions. One particular school was hit nine times, a deplorable fate that is shared by one market that was hit at least 24 times.

Saudi Arabia which has been repeatedly called to world attention over its indiscriminate bombings of civilian targets dismissed the report, with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir telling the Guardian that the figures are “vastly exaggerated.”

He blamed the Houthi fighters of turning civilian buildings such as schools and hospitals into “command and control centers” and “weapons depots” that no longer made the sites civilian targets.

“They are military targets. They might have been a school a year ago. But they were not a school when they were bombed,” he said.

This would be a tactic they learned from Palestinians to garner sympathy from foreign press with children paying the cost with their lives. However, the evidence shows that Saudi repeated strikes on markets and hospitals, and the number of child casualties are intended to kill civilians, children included. It has the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing in my opinion. See: Saudi-led coalition airstrikes #1 cause of civilian deaths in Yemen – UN body - below

The Guardian revealed the findings at a time when UK’s International Development and Business committees urged London to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom is the second largest purchaser of British weapons importing some $3.7 billion worth of arms since the bombing of Yemen began. Opposition parties have blamed the ruling elite for not dealing with the matter and not stopping arms transfer to the Kingdom

“It’s sickening to think of British-built weapons being used against civilians and the government has an absolute responsibility to do everything in its power to stop that from happening,” the UK’s shadow defense secretary, Clive Lewis, told the Guardian.

A man shows damage at a house destroyed by a Saudi-led airstrike in Yemen's capital Sanaa © Mohamed al-SayaghiBritish MPs denied vote on Saudi arms sales ban, while US senators propose boycott

Lawmakers in the US are also calling to ban arms sales to Riyadh after Saudi-led bombing campaign continues to receive worldwide condemnation for its conduct from human rights groups and the UN.

“Selling $1.15 billion (£870 million) in tanks, guns, ammunition, and more to a country with a poor human rights record embroiled in a bitter war is a recipe for disaster and an escalation of an ongoing arms race in the region,” Republicans Rand Paul said earlier this week.

Last month 64 members of the House of Representatives signed a letter urging President Barack Obama to delay the sale after the State Department approved the potential delivery of more than 130 Abrams battle tanks, 20 armored recovery vehicles and other equipment to Saudis.

Washington justified the sale as the means to secure long-lasting peace in the region, without altering the “basic military balance in the region.”

“This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a strategic regional partner which has been and continues to be a leading contributor to political stability and economic progress in the Middle East,” Security Cooperation Agency said in the press release.

Saudi Arabia sent troops to Yemen to restore ousted Sunni president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power in March 2015. The intervention claimed the lives of at least 10,000 people, including almost 4,000 civilians, according to conservative UN estimates. The majority of victims were killed in airstrikes. Peace talks mediated by the UN which aimed to bring hostilities to an end faltered last month and fighting continued.

Saudi-led coalition airstrikes #1 cause of civilian deaths in Yemen – UN body 

A damaged building is pictured in the war-torn southwestern city of Taiz, Yemen August 17, 2016. © Anees Mahyoub / Reuters

Airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen are responsible for the majority of civilians killed in the country’s ongoing conflict, the UN has found, while calling for an international investigation into the coalition’s violations there.

“OHCHR has documented incidents in which air strikes by the coalition forces had an impact on localities with a high concentration of civilians, including markets and residential areas, as well as on events such as wedding ceremonies, frequently incurring high casualties and causing substantive infrastructural damage,” the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a report.

“The cases monitored by the Office indicate that air strikes were the single largest cause of casualties,” the report published on Thursday states. “The prolonged duration of the conflict has strongly heightened the disastrous risk of a systemic collapse of Yemen.”

According to the UN’s human rights office, an estimated 3,799 civilians have been killed since the Saudi-led airstrikes began in March of 2015. The UN and rights groups estimate that at least 9,000 people have died overall, and 6,711 people have been wounded in the conflict.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has called for an international investigation into the violations committed by the Saudi-led coalition, saying that a national commission had failed to succeed in pursuing those responsible.

Speaking during a news briefing in Geneva, Mohammad Ali Alnsour, chief of the Middle East and North Africa section of the UN’s human rights office, said: “The coalition had shared with us their internal investigation. And our observation as an office [is] we need to see more transparency in terms of these investigations.”

“The compensation of the victims is an important element, but it is not the only element. We think there should be a kind of accountability and these violations not to be repeated again,” he added.

The UN’s 22-page report also condemns the recruitment of child fighters in Yemen, as well as suspected US drone strikes and attacks on human rights defenders. The office also accused the Saudi military of dropping cluster bombs in Yemen’s residential areas.

Tensions in Yemen escalated after Shia President Saleh was deposed in 2012 and his Houthi supporters – reportedly aided by Iran – eventually seized the capital city of Sanaa in 2014. Houthi forces then advanced from Sanaa towards the south, seizing large parts of Yemen and sending current Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile.

In March of 2015, the Saudi-led coalition began airstrikes in order to stop Houthi advances and reinstate Hadi to power. By late summer of that year, Saudi-led forces had launched a ground operation as well.

Yemen’s civil war has cost the country $14 billion so far, according to a confidential joint report compiled by the World Bank, UN, the Islamic Development Bank, and the European Union.

The most recent strike by the Saudi-led coalition took place on Saturday, when jets struck Sanaa during a rally attended by some 100,000 pro-Houthi rebels and sympathizers of ex-President Saleh. 

Earlier this month, at least 11 people were killed and 19 others injured in an airstrike that targeted a hospital in northwestern Hajjah province, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Also in August, at least 10 children were killed and almost 30 injured at a school in northwest Yemen, MSF reported. That strike was also blamed on the Saudi-led coalition.

Just days before the school strike, at least nine people were killed in a Saudi-led coalition airstrike in Sanaa that was reported to be the first in recent months.

Speaking on the atrocities committed against civilians in Yemen, human rights activist Lama Fakih, a senior crisis adviser at Amnesty International, told RT that her organization has called for a range of consequences against the Saudi-led coalition for its “unlawful attacks.”

“We have seen for example attacks against schools rendering them unusable so that children have not been able to start the academic year. We’ve seen the Saudis also use a banned cluster munitions which act as landmines when they are left in civilian areas and are particularly problematic for children, who mistake them for toys and move them around and end up being causalities of this weapons,” she said.

The UN has condemned the actions of the Saudi-led coalition before releasing its Thursday report. In January, it slammed Riyadh for carrying out “widespread and systematic” assaults on civilian targets.

However, in a surprising and controversial move in June, the UN removed Saudi Arabia from a blacklist of children’s rights violators, even after a report found that the Saudi-led coalition was responsible for hundreds of child deaths in Yemen. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon later admitted that the decision was made after threats were received from a number of countries.