SANAA – At least 29 children were killed Thursday in an attack on a bus inrebel-held northern Yemen, where a Saudi-led military coalition said itcarried out a strike, the Red Cross said.
“A hospital supported by our team in Yemen received the bodies of 29children under the age of 15 and 48 wounded, including 30 children,” theInternational Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) tweeted.
A spokesman for the Red Cross in Sanaa told AFP the toll was not final ascasualties from the attack had been taken to several different hospitals.
The coalition fighting alongside the government against Shiite Huthi rebelsin Yemen said it carried out a “legitimate military action” in the area.
The coalition said the strike targeted the Iran-backed Huthi rebelsresponsible for a deadly missile attack on the Saudi city of Jizan onWednesday.
Saudi Arabia shot down the missile, with debris killing a Yemeni man andwounding 11 others, the coalition said.
In an earlier tweet, the Red Cross said the strike hit a bus filled withchildren in Dahyan Market in northern Saada, a stronghold of the Huthirebels.
“Under international humanitarian law, civilians must be protected duringconflict,” the ICRC said.
The attack was also denounced by the UN children agency, UNICEF. “STOPCRUELTY AGAINST CHILDREN.. NO Excuses anymore!” it said.
The Huthi Al-Masirah TV reported that 39 people had been killed and 51wounded, “mostly children”.
On August 2, attacks on a hospital and a fish market in the strategicrebel-held port city of Hodeida killed at least 55 civilians and wounded170, according to the ICRC.
The coalition denied responsibility for those attacks.
The coalition, which also includes the United Arab Emirates, intervened in2015 to try to restore the internationally recognised government after therebels drove it out of the capital Sanaa.
The war in the impoverished country has since left nearly 10,000 peopledead and unleashed what the UN describes as the world s worst humanitariancrisis. – APP/AFP