UN demands inquiry into Saudi bombing of Yemeni market
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This photo provided by the Arabic-language Mersad news agency shows a victim lying dead on the ground following Saudi airstrikes against the al-Khamis market in the Mastaba district of the northwestern Yemeni province of Hajjah on March 15, 2016.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for an investigation into recent Saudi aerial attacks on a crowded marketplace in Yemen’s northwestern Province of Hajjah, which claimed more than 100 lives.
“The secretary general condemns the airstrikes that hit al-Khamis market in Mastaba district in the Hajjah Province of Yemen yesterday,” Ban’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.
According to Press TV, the UN chief complained “This incident is one of the deadliest -- reportedly martyring and wounding scores of civilians, including women and children -- since the start of the conflict.”
“This is the second major incident of this kind in just over two weeks,” the statement added, stressing that attacks on civilian areas like markets are a flagrant violation of international law.
At least 107 people, including women and children, lost their lives and dozens more sustained injuries on Tuesday, when Saudi military aircraft bombarded the al-Khamis market, approximately 130 kilometers (80 miles) northwest of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a.
Meanwhile, medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders announced in a statement that its physicians had treated more than 40 people injured in the market bombing, including two people who succumbed to their injuries on the way to hospital.
On Wednesday, Saudi warplanes struck Harib Bihan in Yemen’s West-Central Province of Ma'rib, destroying the main water reservoir in the town. No immediate report of casualties was available.
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