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US supplied bomb that killed Yemeni children: report
WASHINGTON, Aug 18, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The bomb that killed 40 children and
11 others in a Saudi-led coalition air strike on a bus in rebel-held northern
Yemen was sold by the United States under a State Department deal with
Riyadh, CNN has reported.
The numbers on shrapnel, of which images were taken shortly after the
attack this month, indicate that it was a laser-guided Mk 82 bomb
manufactured by defense contractor Lockheed Martin, CNN said Friday, citing
munitions experts.
Former president Barack Obama banned the sale of precision-guided weaponry
to Saudi Arabia after it used a similar bomb in an October 2016 attack that
killed 140 people at a funeral in the rebel-held capital Sanaa.
But President Donald Trump overturned that ban after taking office in
2017.
Fifty-six children were also among the 79 people wounded in the August 9
strike on Saada province, a rebel stronghold that borders Saudi Arabia,
according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The coalition has promised an internal inquiry but analysts and aid groups
have voiced doubt that it is ready to provide the transparency and
accountability demanded by the wider international community.
It is part of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, a conflict that has
killed nearly 10,000 people since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen
in March 2015 as Huthi rebel fighters closed in on the last bastion of
President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi’s government.
Coalition commanders have admitted a small number of mistakes, but there
has been no public disciplinary action or changes to the rules of engagement.
The commanders have accused rebels of using civilians as human shields.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1300 hrs