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UK, US Bombs Caused Nearly 1,000 Civilian Casualties in Yemen - Report

UK, US Bombs Caused Nearly 1,000 Civilian Casualties in Yemen - Report
folder_openYemen access_time5 years ago
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By Staff, The Independent

British and American bombs killed and maimed nearly 1000 civilians, including over 120 children in Yemen, since the start of war, a new report revealed.

The findings sparked fresh calls for both countries to halt arms sales and military assistance to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who used the weapons in a ruinous four-year conflict there.

The 128-page investigation, spearheaded by the US-based University Network for Human Rights [UNHR] and Yemeni monitoring group Mwatana, investigated 27 unlawful airstrikes launched in Yemen by the Gulf alliance between April 2015 and April 2018.

They found that in every one of the sorties, US or UK-made weapons were probably used, killing at least 203 people and injuring nearly 750. Over 120 children, meanwhile and at least 56 women were among the dead and wounded.

The report for the first time exposed that UK weapons had likely been deployed in at least 5 apparently unlawful airstrikes in Yemen, hitting a community college, multiple civilian businesses and a warehouse, resulting in the death of one civilian and the injury to a child.

It comes just weeks after the House of Lords International Relations Committee said that British arms sales to Saudi Arabia, totaling £4.7bn since the Yemen war began, have caused “significant civilian casualties” and so are probably illegal.

“This report shows there is a pattern of apparently unlawful airstrikes in which western weapons have been used by the coalition. It is evidence that US and UK have been playing a role in the slaughter and devastation that is happening in Yemen right now,” said Ruhan Nagra, of the University Human Rights Network, which co-authored the report.

“The conversation so far in the UK has been about the “risk” of UK weapons being used in unlawful strikes ... This report it shows it isn’t about the risk anymore, UK arms are already being used, repeatedly. And the companies that produced these weapons, Raytheon and GEC-Marconi Dynamics, are implicated, too,” she added.

The conflict has killed over 60,000 people and pushed 14 million people to the brink of famine.

Wednesday’s report not only detailed the UK’s and US’s likely involvement but also showed that the number of potentially illegal airstrikes were actually rising.

Mwatana documented 128 apparently unlawful airstrikes in 2018 that killed at least 418 civilians, including 181 children.

That’s an increase on the nearly 90 unlawful coalition attacks that Mwatana documented in 2017 and killed over 350 civilians, including 161 children and 45 women.

UK based Campaign Against Arms Trade [CAAT] which is currently challenging in court the UK’s decision to continue to license the sale of military equipment to Saudi Arabia, called Wednesday’s report the most “comprehensive to date”.

“It makes clear the scale of destruction that has been inflicted on the people of Yemen,” CAAT’s Andrew Smith told The Independent.

Nugra said the report, which urges an immediate halt to arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, adds further evidence to back CAAT’s arms case as well as the House of Lords report.

Since the Yemen war erupted in 2015, the UK has licensed a staggering £4.7bn worth arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and around £585m to the UAE, according to CAAT.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates have been among the two largest importers of US arms.

In the last two years alone, the US has implemented $27.9bn of foreign military sales to Saudi Arabia, according to the State Department.

The US has also provided the coalition intelligence sharing and training. Until November 2018 it was refueling Saudi-led coalition jets.

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