Saudi warplanes use cluster bombs in airstrikes on Yemen

Saudi Arabia has intensified its airstrikes on Yemen, using internationally-banned cluster bombs in its air assaults against the impoverished country.

The Yemeni news agency SABA said Saudi fighter jets dropped cluster bombs on several areas in the district of Baqem in the northern province of Sa’ada on Sunday.

The attacks came in defiance of international laws, which prohibit the use of such weapons.

The United Nations (UN)’s human rights office has recently called for an independent international investigation of cases of human rights violations in the Saudi war on Yemen, confirming the use of banned cluster bombs by Saudi Arabia against Yemen’s residential areas.

On May 6, Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized the United States for selling cluster munitions to Saudi Arabia.

The UK was also rapped by Amnesty International over supplying Riyadh with British-made cluster bombs, which have likewise been used against civilians in Yemen.

Elsewhere in Sa’ada, Saudi warplanes launched air raids on the district of Shada on Sunday.

Three Saudi air strikes also hit al-Nahdin district in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a Province.

However, there were no immediate reports of causalities from the air raids.

Also on Sunday, at least a woman was killed and two other people were wounded in Saudi airstrikes on residential areas in the Matun district of Jawf Province.

Saudi warplanes also destroyed the building of Doctors’ Syndicate in the western province of Hudaydah overnight. Two civilians were injured in the air raids, one of them critically.

Meanwhile, the Yemeni army and Popular Committees on Sunday managed to take control of several positions held by Saudi-backed mercenaries on the outskirts of the border region of Midi, leaving more than 40 militants dead and several others injured, according to Yemen’s al-Masirah website.

SS