Yemenis Denounce Saudi-Led Aggression

TEHRAN (IQNA) – Yemeni people took to the streets of the capital Sana’a on Friday to condemn an ongoing war led by Saudi Arabia and its allies against their country.

The demonstrators also expressed anger at the current economic crisis which the war has created in their country, Press TV reported.  

Some 15,000 Yemenis have been killed and thousands more injured since the onset of the Saudi-led aggression on Yemen in March 2015.

The United Nations says a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in need of food aid, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.

A high-ranking UN aid official has warned against the “catastrophic” living conditions in Yemen, stating that there is a growing risk of famine and cholera there.

“The conflict has escalated since November, driving an estimated 100,000 people from their homes,” John Ging, UN director of aid operations, told the UN Security Council on February 27.

The demonstration came a week after dozens of civilians lost their lives and dozens more sustained injuries as Saudi warplanes targeted a bus carrying children in Yemen’s northwestern province of Sa’ada.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said 40 children were among the 51 civilians killed during the Saudi airstrike on the school bus.

 The children were returning from a trip organized by a religious seminary when the bus came under attack. Images later circulated online, showing pieces of a US-made bomb on the scene.

The United Nations Security Council has called for a “credible and transparent” investigation into the airstrike.

Thousands of mourners attended a funeral procession for many of the dead children in Sa’ada’s provincial capital of the same name on Monday, venting their anger against Riyadh and Washington.

The Saudi-led coalition, however, described the attack as “legitimate,” with coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki even claiming that the strikes “conformed to international and humanitarian laws.”