If you've forgotten about Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen, Human Rights Watch is there to remind you.
The monitor came out with a report on Yemen last week that said Saudi Arabia has been violating international law with its air campaign, striking civilian casualties in areas that showed "no evident military target."
The UN declared the conflict-torn country a Level 3, the highest-level humanitarian crisis, earlier this week. And Human Rights Watch says the blatant disregard for civilian casualties in northern Saada, a city believed to be a stronghold for Houthi rebels. HRW wrote:
On May 8, a coalition spokesman announced that the entire city of Saada was a military target. This not only violated the laws-of-war prohibition against placing civilians at particular risk by treating a number of separate and distinct military objectives as a single military target, but possibly also the prohibition against making threats of violence whose purpose is to instill terror in the civilian population.
Possible war crimes haven't stopped the US — which has yet to acknowledge violations — from continuing its involvement. Saudi allies, including the US, are reluctant to even call the raid a blockade, according to The New York Times.
Here's an HRW video made public on June 30:
By Hayat Norimine
