Air strikes kill schoolchildren in Yemen

An air strike by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Shia rebels hit a bus driving in a busy market in northern Yemen on Thursday, killing at least 50 people including children and wounding 77, Yemen's rebel-run Al Masirah TV said, citing rebel health ministry figures.

The Western-backed alliance fighting the Iranian-aligned Houthi group in Yemen said the air strikes targeted missile launchers used to attack the southern Saudi industrial city of Jizan, killing a Yemeni civilian there, a statement carried by the state news agency SPA said.

TRT World's Reagan Des Vignes reports. 

It accused the Houthis of using children as human shields.

"Today's attack in Saada was a legitimate military operation ... and was carried out in accordance with international humanitarian law," the Arabic-language statement said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said one attack hit the bus driving children in Dahyan market, in northern Saada, adding hospitals there had received dozens of dead and wounded.

Call for investigation

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday condemned the air strike and called for an “independent and prompt investigation,” his spokesman said.

US and other Western powers provide arms and intelligence to the alliance, and human rights groups have criticised them over coalition air strikes that have killed hundreds of civilians at hospitals, schools and markets.

A US military spokeswoman said US forces were not involved in Thursday’s air strike.

“Grotesque, shameful, indignant. Blatant disregard for rules of war when bus carrying innocent school children is fair game for attack,” Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a Twitter post.

The World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Yemen, Nevio Zagaria, said it has deployed emergency supplies. “I am extremely saddened by what happened in Saada ... The attack on civilians is not acceptable.”

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the United States was concerned about reports of the air strikes and urged the Saudi-led coalition to “conduct a thorough and transparent investigation.” 

Separately, a White House National Security Council spokeswoman referred to “conflicting reports in global media” and said “we are waiting for an official assessment of what actually happened.” 

Asked if the White House and the State Department were offering differing views, the spokeswoman said: “We have the same position.” 

Number of air strikes is unclear

It was unclear how many air strikes were carried out in the area, in northern Yemen, near the border with Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia and Sunni Muslim allies have been fighting in Yemen for more than three years against the Houthis, who control much of north Yemen including the capital Sanaa and drove the government into exile in 2014.

It has launched thousands of air strikes in a campaign to restore the internationally recognised government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.

Errant strikes have killed hundreds of civilians at hospitals, schools and markets.

Hussain al Bukhaiti joins TRT World from Sanaa, and explains why the civilian casualty count of the latest Saudi air strike was so high.

Coalition cleared of blame?

The military alliance says it does not target civilians and has set up an investigation committee into alleged mass casualty air strikes which have mostly cleared the coalition of any blame. 

“Today’s attack in Saada was a legitimate military operation ... and was carried out in accordance with international humanitarian law,” the coalition said in the Arabic-language statement carried by SPA. 

“Targeting Saudis and residents in Saudi is a red line,” coalition spokesman Turki al Malki later told Al Arabiya TV. 

The Houthis have launched a series of missile strikes on the kingdom, including Riyadh, over the past year. Fragments from a missile launched at the Jizan Industrial City in southern Saudi Arabia late on Wednesday, killed one Yemeni civilian and wounded 11, Saudi state media said earlier on Thursday.

"(The air strikes) conformed to international and humanitarian laws," the coalition statement said, quoting spokesman Colonel Turki al Malki. The statement accused the Houthis of using children as human shields.

Al Masirah, the TV station of the armed Houthi movement, said on its Twitter account that 39 people had been killed and 51 wounded. There was no immediate comment from the Houthis in response to the coalition allegations.

Saada, the main stronghold of the Houthis, has mainly come under air strikes from the coalition in Yemen's war, as the mountainous province makes battles hard for pro-government ground troops.

The Yemen war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than two million and driven the country to the verge of famine, according to the United Nations.