NOVANEWS
The International Committee of the Red Cross reported on Twitter that its medical team had received “the bodies of 29 children, all under 15 years old” and was treating “48 injured people, among them 30 children.”
The school bus that was bombed was reportedly carrying children back to religious education classes after a picnic near the city of Dahyan, according to reports from Save the Children and Al Jazeera. Local journalists reported seeing “body parts scattered” at the scene.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), an outspoken critic of the United States’ support for the Saudi coalition, expressed fury over the attack and demanded once again that lawmakers end their complicity in the war.
✔@ChrisMurphyCT
U.S. bombs. U.S. targeting. U.S. mid air support.
And we just bombed a SCHOOL BUS.
The Saudi/UAE/U.S. bombing campaign is getting more reckless, killing more civilians, and strengthening terrorists inside Yemen. We need to end this – NOW.
✔@cnnbrk
Dozens are dead after an airstrike hit a school bus carrying children in northern Yemen, humanitarian group says https://cnn.it/2OWBS03
✔@SaveUKNews
YEMEN : Save the Children calls for immediate independent investigation after dozens of children feared dead in school bus attack. @foreignoffice #Yemen #Yemencrisis #NotATarget http://save.tc/O0X030ll3b7 pic.twitter.com/h0ZwOCP6v3
According to Al Jazeera, the Saudi coalition claimed it had targeted “missile launchers,” but Yemen-based reporters who have witnessed numerous attacks in civilian-populated areas vigorously disputed the claim.
“The place is known to be a market, [and] there is no military installation nearby… but the Saudis are known to have done this many times—target schools, weddings and so on,” Nasser Arrabyee told Al Jazeera.
In April, the coalition killed at least 20 Yemeni civilians—including a bride—when it bombed a wedding party. As Al Jazeera reported, a third of the 258 attacks carried out by Saudi and UAE forces in June targeted non-military sites.
In a rare show of attention to the war that’s been going on since March 2015, killing and injuring 15,000 civilians and plunging the country into what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, MSNBC briefly covered the attack and noted that the Saudi coalition is backed by United States, which supplies fuel and intelligence to Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the coalition’s war on the Houthi rebels in support of the Yemeni government.
@adamjohnsonNYC I just saw MSNBC do a short segment on how US back Saudi Arabia dropped a bomb on a school bus in Yemen. Probably lasted 30 seconds, if that.
✔@ggreenwald
US media outlets that call this atrocity (and others like it in Yemen) the work of a “Saudi-led coalition” – without highlighting the vital, indispensable, multi-layered support the US & UK have given to it from the start (2015) – are engaged in propaganda https://theintercept.com/2016/10/10/u-s-and-u-k-continue-to-actively-participate-in-saudi-war-crimes-targeting-of-yemeni-civilians/ …
✔@ChrisMurphyCT
U.S. bombs. U.S. targeting. U.S. mid air support.
And we just bombed a SCHOOL BUS.
The Saudi/UAE/U.S. bombing campaign is getting more reckless, killing more civilians, and strengthening terrorists inside Yemen. We need to end this – NOW. https://twitter.com/cnnbrk/status/1027526751071682561 …
Dozens, mostly children, massacred in Saudi UAE attack on #Yemen bushttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-45128367 …
As almost always if a US UK ally to blame, note how BBC headline doesn’t name the perpetrator, and article nowhere mentions that victims likely killed with US UK supplied planes and bombs
✔@NRC_Egeland
Grotesque, shameful, indignant. Blatant disregard for rules of war when bus carrying innocent school children is fair game for attack. #NotATargethttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/08/yemen-dozens-children-killed-wounded-school-bus-attack-180809085843444.html …
✔@Francescorocca
Appalled by the attack in #Yemen on a bus full of kids. This is shameful, unacceptable, cruel and barbaric. Civilians are #NotATarget, kids are #NotATarget: they must be protected. All my thoughts to victims, their beloveds and our @ICRC_ye colleagues who are supporting hospitals pic.twitter.com/ayZDJPWmbN
“There is no military solution to this conflict,” she added. “Only a political solution can bring the war to an end and reinstate peace in Yemen. We urge all parties to agree to an immediate cessation of hostilities, return to the negotiation table to commit to a ceasefire and cooperate with the U.N. Special Envoy Martin Griffiths. Spare the Yemeni people more death and misery.”
As award-winning journalist Iona Craig noted last week, such slaughter and barbarity is nothing new when it comes to the U.S. and Saudi role in Yemen:
✔@ionacraig
U.S.-backed Saudi airstrike on family with nine children shows “clear violations” of the laws of war https://interc.pt/2LNXvBC by @ionacraig @shuaibalmosawa
