SANAA – Forty children were among 51 people killed in a Saudi-led coalitionair strike on a bus in rebel-held northern Yemen, the Red Cross said in anew toll Tuesday.
Fifty-six children were also among the 79 people wounded in the Thursdaystrike on Saada province, a rebel stronghold that borders Saudi Arabia, theInternational Committee of the Red Cross said.
The new casualty toll came after a mass funeral was held for many of thedead children on Monday at which thousands vented anger against Riyadh andWashington.
Mourners raised pictures of the children and shouted slogans against SaudiArabia and its ally and key arms supplier, the United States.
The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 as Huthi rebelfighters closed in on the last bastion of President Abedrabbo MansourHadi’s government.
The conflict has killed nearly 10,000 people since then, the vast majorityof them civilians, and caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,according to the United Nations.
The UN Security Council called on Friday for a “credible” investigationinto the deadly strike.
But it stopped short of demanding an independent investigation, and expertsand aid groups voiced doubts that a promised coalition probe would providetransparency or accountability.
The coalition has been repeatedly blamed for bombing civilians, including astrike on a wedding hall in the Red Sea coastal town of Mokha in September2015, in which 131 people died. The coalition denied responsibility.
In October 2016, a coalition air strike killed 140 people at a funeral inthe rebel-held capital Sanaa.
The coalition has admitted a small number of mistakes, but accuses therebels of using civilians as human shields.
The high civilian death toll has been an embarrassment for Washington andother Western governments which supply the coalition with warplanes andother weapons.
But Washington continues to provide replacement munitions as well asintelligence and refuelling support for coalition aircraft.