Credit: Wikipedia Commons / By Laurent ERRERA from L’Union, France /  Saudi Arabia’s United Kingdom-supplied Eurofighter Typhoons have played a central role in Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen

By Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

More than 100 people were killed in Yemen after a Saudi-led coalition launched a series of air strikes on a detention centre, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).  The Saudi-led coalition, which backs Yemen’s government, said its attack destroyed a drone and missile site.  Saudi-led intervention in Yemen ,also called the Arab coalition,  is a military intervention that was launched by Saudi Arabia in 2015, leading a coalition of nine countries from the Middle East and Africa, in response to calls from the internationally recognized pro-Saudi president of Yemen Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi for military support after he was ousted by the Houthi movement due to economic and political grievances, and fled to Saudi Arabia. 

Saudi-Led Coalition Launch  Daily Airstrikes in Yemen 

Credit:  https://www.icrc.org/en /  ADEN –  Staff of the Yemen Red Crescent Society examine the scene of an Aug. 12, 2019 blast. (Photo: ICRC)

“What happened to the population in Aden is not an isolated situation but takes place in all parts of Yemen almost daily. Political decisions are necessary to stop the suffering of the population.”

-Mathias Kempf, head of the ICRC mission in Aden. 

UK and the US support Saudi-Led Coalition Through Arms Sales and Technical Assistance

Credit: Wikipedia Commons /  US Secretary of Defense James Mattis with King Salman of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, 19 April 2017  (DOD photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Brigitte N. Brantley)

Rights groups have criticized the the UK and the US  for supplying arms, and accuse the coalition of using cluster munitions, which are banned in most countries. Amnesty International urged the US and the UK to stop supplying arms to Saudi Arabia and to the Saudi-led coalition.

Amnesty International activists took a lifelike replica of a Eurofighter Typhoon jet – and accompanying missiles – to the Houses of Parliament last March  in protest at the UK’s continuing sale of arms to Saudi Arabia. “The week sees the fourth anniversary of the devastating conflict in Yemen, a conflict which the UK’s sale of arms – worth almost £5bn – to Saudi Arabia has helped fuel.” 

Since March 2015, the UK has sold more than two dozen Eurofighter Typhoons to Saudi Arabia. Last year it was announced that a further 48 UK-supplied Typhoons were likely to be bought by the Kingdom – AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL.      According to the United Nations, during the past four years at least 6,800 civilians have been killed in the Yemeni conflict (with thousands more injured), the majority as a result of Saudi Arabia-led Coalition airstrikes. These airstrikes have struck hospitals, homes, weddings, crowded market places and public transport. Amnesty International has repeatedly called on the UK Government to halt arms transfers to the Coalition because of the clear risk of such arms being used in breach of human rights and international humanitarian law in Yemen.

Photo by Gary Raynaldo / A mock “U.S. Drone” outside the Saudi Arabian Council in New York City during protest Nov. 8, 2018 to demonstrate against The Kingdom’s ongoing war in Yemen.

The UN warned the Saudi-led assault is contributing to the death of a young child every 10 minutes in Yemen, a country at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. In 2015, Saudi Arabia initiated a bombing campaignagainst its southern neighbor Yemen in what was essentially a proxy war — the Saudis backed a government that had been forced out of the capital by the Houthis, a group allied with Iran. The war in Yemen continues — in part with bombs the Saudi-led coalition of countries bought from the U.S.   

Photo by Gary Raynaldo /   Nov. 8,  2018.  New York City,  Saudi Arabian Consulate.    Protesters wore signs around their neck with names and ages of children who have died in the Saudi-led assault in Yemen.  Other demonstrators held their “death” signs in front of the Saudi Arabian Consulate. They sang protest songs in solidarity with the victims and families of the deadly war in Yemen. “Ahmed Adel Hakim Ali Amen. 11-years-old. We remember you,” a protester chanted, announcing the death of an 11-year-old killed in the Yemen violence.

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