"International organizations and the United Nations, with their disgraceful
stances on the brutal killing of Yemeni children and nation, have lost the last
vestiges of their reputation (in the world public opinion)”, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi
said in a statement after at least 31 civilians, mostly children, were killed in
a Saudi-led airstrike in Hudaydah on Thursday.
He said targeting civilians and children is a permanent policy of the aggressors
in Yemen.
Al-Houthi called for global action to put pressure on the aggressors to end the
war on Yemen and breaking the "savage blockade” of the impoverished country.
He further held the US and its allies responsible for the callous crimes being
committed in Yemen.
Thursday’s attack in Hudaydah came only two weeks after another strike by the
invading military coalition hit a school bus in the impoverished country and
killed scores of Yemeni children.
Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah satellite television network, citing a
spokesperson of the country’s Health Ministry, reported that all the victims,
whose vehicle was destroyed in the strike in Durayhimi city on Thursday, were
internally displaced people.
Al-Masirah, citing local sources, had reported earlier that at least 22 children
and four women lost their lives in the deadly strike, adding that all those on
board the vehicle were killed.
Back on August 9, Saudi-led warplanes hit a school bus in the town of Dhahyan in
Yemen’s northern province of Sa’ada with a 227-kilogram laser-guided Mark 82
bomb, killing a total of 51 people, among them 40 children, and leaving nearly
80 others wounded.
Later investigation by Yemeni authorities revealed that the bomb had been
supplied by the US to the Saudi-led military coalition. Furthermore, a report by
the CNN also confirmed what Yemeni authorities had announced about the origin of
the bomb.
Yemen’s Ansarullah movement condemned yesterday’s attack, saying that the blood
of children was spilt again before that of those killed in the bus attack was
dried.
Later on Thursday, Yemen’s Ansarullah fighters announced that they had fired two
Zelzal-1 short-range ballistic missile at Saudi forces’ positions in the
kingdom’s Jizan province in retaliation for the Hudaydah attack, killing a
number of them.
Meanwhile, Yemeni forces have reported that their snipers killed a Saudi soldier
in Saudi Arabia's Asir region.
Saudi Arabia and some of its allies, including the United Arab Emirates, Morocco
and Sudan, launched a brutal war, code-named Operation Decisive Storm, against
Yemen in March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, Yemen’s
former president and a staunch ally of Riyadh, and crush the popular Houthi
Ansarullah movement.
The movement, which is a significant aid to the Yemeni army in defending the
country against the invading forces, has been running state affairs in the
absence of an effective administration during the past three years.
The imposed war initially consisted of a bombing campaign, but was later coupled
with a naval blockade and the deployment of ground forces to Yemen.
Some 15,000 Yemenis have been killed and thousands more injured since the onset
of the Saudi-led aggression.
The Saudi-led aggression has also taken a heavy toll on the country's
infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories. The United
Nations has said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food,
including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.
Several Western countries, the United States and Britain in particular, are also
accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh
regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and
intelligence assistance.
Source: Tasnim