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AI Slams Saudi Coalition’s Cluster Bomb-Use in Yemen

AI Slams Saudi Coalition’s Cluster Bomb-Use in Yemen
folder_openYemen access_time7 years ago
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Local Editor

Once again, Amnesty International [AI] Thursday voiced rage at the Saudi-led coalition's use of banned cluster munitions in Yemen during raids on residential areas.

AI Slams Saudi Coalition’s Cluster Bomb-Use in Yemen

The Brazilian-manufactured munitions were fired in a February 15 attack on three residential districts and agricultural land in Saada province of northern Yemen, it said in a statement.

Two people were wounded in the attack, said Amnesty, which had also reported that the coalition used cluster munitions in October 2015 and May of last year.

The coalition "absurdly justifies its use of cluster munitions by claiming it is in line with international law, despite concrete evidence of the human cost to civilians caught up in the conflict", said Lynn Maalouf, research director at Amnesty's Beirut regional office.

"Cluster munitions are inherently indiscriminate weapons that inflict unimaginable harm on civilian lives," she said.

Amnesty called for Brazil "to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions and for Saudi Arabia and coalition members to stop all use of cluster munition".

Separately, Human Rights Watch [HRW] in December accused the coalition of firing Brazilian-made rockets containing the outlawed munitions near two schools in Saada, killing two civilians and wounding six including a child.

The December 6 came a day after Saudi Arabia joined the US and Brazil in abstaining from a UN General Assembly vote that overwhelmingly endorsed an international ban on cluster bomb use.

The weapons can contain dozens of smaller bomblets that disperse over large areas, often continuing to kill and maim civilians long after they are dropped.

The Saudi-led coalition, which had come under repeated criticism over civilian casualties in Yemen, acknowledged in December it had made "limited use" of British-made cluster bombs but said it had stopped using them.

According to the UN, the aggression on Yemen had martyred more than 7,400 and wounded 40,000 since the coalition started its illegal interventions and aggression on March 2015.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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