US-made bomb used in 'apparent war crime' in Yemen

A Saudi Arabia-led airstrike that hit a funeral in Yemen and killed more than 140 people is an apparent war crime, a leading human rights group said in a scathing report Thursday.

thehill.com reports:

Furthermore, Human Rights Watch identified remnants of the munitions used in the attack as a U.S.-made laser-guided bomb.

"The U.S., U.K. and other coalition allies should send an unequivocal message to Saudi Arabia that they want no part in these crimes,” Sarah Leah Whitson, the group’s Middle East director, said in the report. "Yemeni civilians should not be asked to tolerate such madness a moment longer.”

A Saudi-led coalition has been fighting  Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015. The United States supports the effort with limited intelligence, logistics, such as air refueling, and billions of dollars of arms sales.

But the United States has come under increasing pressure to withdraw its support as the civilian death toll mounts.

After Saturday’s funeral bombing, the White House said it is reviewing its support for the coalition. Saudi officials have also pledged to investigate the bombing.

For its Thursday report, Human Rights Watch interviewed 14 witnesses and two first responders and reviewed photos and video of the strike site and weapons remnants.

Though there were military personnel at the funeral, Human Rights Watch said, there were also clearly several hundred civilians, making the attack unlawfully disproportionate.

"After unlawfully attacking schools, markets, hospitals, weddings and homes over the last 19 months, the Saudi-led coalition has now added a funeral to its ever-increasing list of abuses,” Whitson said. "An independent international investigation of this atrocity is needed as the coalition has shown its unwillingness to uphold its legal obligations to credibly investigate.”

Based on photos and footage from a local human rights organization, British journalists and a local activist, the group identified the bomb used in the attack as a U.S.-made air-dropped GBU-12 Paveway II 500-pound laser-guided bomb. An intact guidance fin had legible manufacturer’s markings, the report said.

Human Rights Watch said the National Security Council statement after the attack announcing a review of U.S. support for the campaign was a good first step. But it also encouraged Congress to hold hearings on the issue.

The review also "does not absolve the U.S. of potential liability for any coalition military operations in which US forces participated that resulted in war crimes,” the report added.

The report also included horrific descriptions of the scene from witnesses. For example, an unidentified businessman told Human Rights Watch he went to the funeral hall to help with rescue efforts after friends at the funeral called him for help.

"When I got there, there were more than 50 burned bodies,” he said. "Many where you can still tell the features, but half of their body was gone, half of their head was gone, but the others, it was very, very hard to tell who they were.”