Dozens dead in Yemen as bus carrying children hit by airstrike

Dozens of civilians, mostly children, have been killed and others wounded in an airstrike by the US-backed, Saudi-led coalition in Yemen that hit a bus in the rebel-held north of the country.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), one of the few humanitarian institutions helping civilians on the ground in the war-torn country, said a hospital it supported had received dozens of casualties after the strike at a market in Dahyan, in Sa’ada governorate.

“Under international humanitarian law, civilians must be protected during conflict,” the organisation tweeted. Johannes Bruwer, the head of delegation for the ICRC in Yemen, tweeted: “Scores killed, even more injured, most under the age of 10.”

It was not possible to confirm the death toll, but Abdul-Ghani Nayeb, a health department chief in Sa’ada, told Reuters 43 people had been killed and at least 61 injured. Houthi-controlled Almasirah television broadcast unverified footage of dead and bloodied children being transferred to a hospital.

The UN children’s agency Unicef said it was “very concerned with the initial reports of children being killed”.

In a statement carried by the official Saudi press agency, the Saudi-led coalition called the strike a “legitimate military action” targeting elements responsible for a Houthi missile attack on the Saudi city of Jizan on Wednesday. “[The airstrikes] conformed to international and humanitarian laws,” the statement said. It accused the Iran-aligned Houthis of using children as human shields.

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The coalition, also backed by the UAE, launched a military intervention in Yemen in 2015 aimed at countering the advances of the Houthi rebels, who are viewed by Riyadh as Iranian proxies. The Saudi intervention is also aimed at reinstating the ousted president, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.