Saudi Airstrikes Target Yemeni School Bus, Slaughtering 29 Children using US-made Bomb

(Photo: Ben Norton)

As US-backed Saudi genocide of Yemenis continues, US-manufactured bomb is used in attack responsible for slaughtering 47+ civilians including at least 29 children in horrific airstrikes targeting school bus

On Thursday, in Yemen's northern Saada province, US-backed Saudi coalition warplanes targeted a school bus full of children, and bombed the bus while it was in the middle of a busy market, killing schoolchildren, shoppers and merchants alike.

An official in Saada's medical office, told Middle East Eye the air strikes killed 47 people with 77 more wounded, and that number was likely to rise.

"The air strikes targeted a bus full of school students in the middle of Dahyan market in Saada province while they were going to their school," the official said.

"The victims were the children in the bus, passersby and merchants in the market, and some injuries are serious, so the number of deaths may increase." - Middle East Eye

Yemeni medical sources and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said at least 29 children were killed, mostly under the age of 15. Photos and videos from Yemeni hospital confirm the majority of casualties were young children.

Surprisingly, the Saudi coalition actually took responsibility for the attack, however they claimed the airstrikes targeted missile launchers used by the Houthi government to attack the southern Saudi industrial city of Jizan, and 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 coalition statement said, quoting spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki. - MEE

A local witness said there were no military bases or positions anywhere near the market, and that the scores of victims were all civilians.

"All the victims are civilians and there were no fighters among them. This is a market and it is far from military camps. The air strikes often target civilians in Saada, so we appeal the international community to intervene to stop the Saudis killing them." - MEE

Watch the video clip below of the kids on this very bus, caught just moments before the airstrikes, and decide for yourself if these children were being used as "human shields," and if this was a "legitimate military operation" or an act of terrorism and a war crime:

Only a depraved psychopath could possibly consider the bombing of a bus full of schoolchildren as a legitimate military operation carried out in accordance with international humanitarian law, and this atrocity clearly demonstrates that the Saudi Kingdom and the allied nations which form the Saudi coalition waging this war on the people of Yemen are ruled by psychopaths.

(Photo: Google)

Unfortunately the western nations of the international community seem far more interested with their agenda of regime change in Iran than the Saudi Kingdom's slaughter of Yemenis, which is really nothing more than a genocide. Even worse, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman defended Saudi war crimes the very day before this massacre, and the following day she refused to condemn the horrific attack.

(Watch video clip on Twitter)

And here is a short clip of Heather's response the day after this slaughter, when grilled by the press:

Full White House Press Briefing is below:

Now that the Media is questioning the apparent U.S. backing of Saudi war crimes, Heather has the gall to call out the Press for previously being silent on this issue, as if that fact justifies the present slaughter at hand and the U.S. role in the genocide of Yemenis. Her justification for U.S. supply of monetary funding, weapons, data used for targeting, and other logistical and military support to the murderous and genocidal Saudi Kingdom terrorists?

"As you know, Saudi Arabia is a strategic partner in the region."

And why exactly are they our partner, a sane and reasonable person might ask? Well, in other words, Saudi oil and U.S. weapons sales are more valuable to our government than the lives of innocent children, so expect the blood to keep flowing for Saudi oil cartels and U.S. war profiteers. It's a sick game the U.S. is playing with Saudi Arabia, trading innocent lives for the profits of a greedy few, but even more sickening is the horrifying fact that the bomb which just caused this recent slaughter was manufactured and supplied by the United States.

Last Thursday’s horrific bombing of a bus full of school children in northern Yemen was carried out using a weapon sold to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition by the United States, photo evidence of the bomb site has revealed.

The photos taken at the scene by Ahmed AbdulKareem for MintPress News and by other local journalists indicate that a Mark 82 (MK-82) bomb, jointly manufactured by U.S. weapons companies Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, had been used in the attack. - MintPress News

So now we know why the U.S. refuses to condemn these attacks, because it was carried out using their own supplied weapons! Since the beginning of this conflict in 2015, the U.S. has provided over 10,000 MK-series bombs and 22,000 total bombs to the murderous Saudi Kingdom, as well as providing both troops on the ground and U.S. airstrikes as coalition support within Yemen. It is likely that the U.S. even helped pick the target, or at the least knew in advance they planned to bomb the bus and did nothing to stop it.

This Saudi war of aggression has been going on for three years now, and has created the largest humanitarian crisis in the world with millions of Yemeni children expected to die by starvation or cholera by the end of the year, due to the coalition's military sea and air blockade on Yemen combined with their deliberate and systematic targeting of water supply infrastructure in the country.

Exactly one week prior to this attack, Saudi airstrikes targeted a Yemeni fish market and hospital in the port city of Hodeida killing at least 50 civilians and injuring over 100 more. The week before that, Saudi airstrikes targeted a water treatment facility, leaving 5,000 children without access to water, and cut off the supply of safe drinking water to over 10,000 total Yemenis. In early July, Saudi airstrikes targeted a wedding ceremony killing 11 women and children, and in April the coalition bombed a wedding killing at least 20 civilians including the bride, wounding over 60 people, 30 of them children. The genocidal attacks specifically targeting civilians regularly occur on a weekly, sometimes almost daily basis these days.

So yes, the Saudi war on Yemen is certainly a legitimate military operation in compliance with all international humanitarian laws as the Saudis claim, clearly; and the consistent, habitual targeting of homes, farmlands, weddings, funerals, markets, hospitals, water supply infrastructure and even school buses full of children must be the Houthis fault, and in no way does it constitute a genocide or acts of terrorism. According to the USA and Saudi Arabia that is... Will the madness never end?

(Photos: Google)

Surely, if humanity is to prevail over psychopathy, this madness must come to an end, and that time is now. These greedy, power-hungry and merciless rulers may have all the money and weapons in the world, but at least we the people still have our humanity.

(Photo: Reuters. Yemenis attend a protest to mark the third anniversary of the Saudi-led war on Yemen, in Sana'a, Yemen on March 26th, 2018)

For more discussion and analysis of these recent events and ongoing Yemeni genocide, watch The Last American Vagabond's (@tlavagabond) recent show interviewing independent journalist Vanessa Beeley:

Primary Sources:
Middle East Eye, At least 29 children killed by Saudi-led airstrike on Yemeni school bus
(https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/dozens-children-killed-and-injured-airstrike-yemen-bus-red-cross-says-61507076)
MintPress News (@mintpressnews), US Provided "Intelligence" and Bomb Used in Massacre of Children
(https://www.mintpressnews.com/bomb-yemen-school-bus-lockheed-martin/247536/)

See also: Zerohedge, Guided Bomb Fragments At Site Of Yemen Bus Airstrike Trace Back To Lockheed Martin
(https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-12/guided-bomb-fragments-site-yemen-bus-airstrike-reportedly-trace-back-lockheed)