Saudi airstrikes leave 600,000 civilians dead, injured: Yemeni ministry

The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights says the ongoing Saudi-led military campaign against the impoverished and conflict-plagued Arab country has killed and injured over 600,000 civilians, including more than a quarter of a million children.

The ministry, in a statement released on Sunday, announced that aerial assaults being conducted by the Saudi-led coalition since March 2015 have claimed the lives of more than 38,500 people.

A total of 2,949 children and women in addition to 8,979 men have either sustained injuries or been maimed as a direct result of the airstrikes as well.

The statement further noted that the Saudi military aggression has also indirectly caused the death of 296,834 people.

More than 247,000 children have lost their lives due to severe malnutrition, and 17,608 civilians have died because of inability to travel abroad to seek medical treatment.

The ministry went on to say that 1,200 people died of kidney failure, another 2,236 of cholera. A total 450 pregnant women also suffered miscarriages.

The statement said criminal acts by Saudi-backed militants supporting Yemen's resigned president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, have also left 2,361 civilians killed and injured.

The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights explained that the Saudi-led war has also destroyed 271 factories, killed dozens of fishermen, and targeted 93 fish landing centers, destroyed 4,586 fishing boats, and deprived more than 50 thousand fishermen from fishing in the Red Sea in addition to the Arabian Sea.

Saudi-led air raids have destroyed nine civilian airports, 14 ports, 5,000 kilometers of roads, 95 bridges, 400 public and private telecommunications facilities, 420 power stations and transmission towers, 450 oil and gas installations and tankers plus 85 sports stadiums.

SS