Two Yemeni Kids Killed After Saudi Cluster Bomb Explodes in Hudaydah
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Two children were killed and four others, including a woman, were injured in Hudaydah governorate of Yemen on Wednesday after a remnant of a cluster munition dropped by the US-backed Saudi coalition exploded.
The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights condemned the crime by the Saudi-led coalition in which cluster bombs were dropped on the Al-Sabah neighborhood in Sana'a governorate, damaging a house and injuring a citizen and three family members.
Since the beginning of the Saudi-led aggression on Yemen, the remains of the US-made Saudi cluster bombs have claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent people in the country.
Thousands of cluster bombs were used by the alliance of Saudi aggression in different Yemeni governorates, according to the Ministry, killing or injuring civilians. "Since many of the cluster munitions branching from the initial bomb do not explode as soon as they reach the ground, it makes the people of that area a target of killing and injuring," the statement said.
Since March 2015, thousands of civilians have been killed or injured by cluster bombs dropped by the coalition in different governorates, the majority of whom are children and women. In the Razih district's Bani Sayyah area, a resident was critically injured by remnants of a cluster bomb explosion this morning.
The Ministry said it holds the countries leading the aggression against Yemen, such as the United States and Saudi Arabia, as well as their mercenaries, responsible for all crimes and violations committed against the Yemeni citizens.
Ali Safra, the Director General of the Executive Center for Mine Action, disclosed the statistics and damage caused by cluster bombs used in the Saudi-led attack on Yemen.
Safra told Al-Masirah that the center has reliable figures and that eight different types of cluster bombs have been used in Yemen.
He clarified that there are 13 different types of cluster bombs that have no details on how they were produced and that they have been used by the Saudi coalition in a variety of locations, including the draft farms in Hajjah Governorate.
He went on to say that the number of cluster bombs found in various parts of the republic totaled 3179. "The number of cluster bomb casualties has surpassed 1,000, with the majority of them being women and children, and the majority of them being in agricultural and grazing areas," he said.
The Yemeni Director of the Executive Center for Mine Action said that 9 governorates, including Sa'ada, Hajjah, Sana'a, Hudaydah, Al Jawf, Amran, Al-Mahwit, Dhamar, and Taiz, received the majority of cluster bomb attacks. "According to international standards, 99.1 percent of cluster bombs are destroyed in place," he said, adding that "our center faces a major challenge for many reasons," including the fact that "a new form of cluster bomb is being dealt with, and the UN has not equipped us with the materials to kill these devastating remnants."
He said that the US-Saudi violence prevented the entry of material that would aid in the destruction of cluster bomb remnants. "Through the center's work plans for the year 2021, we want to work in areas where we have not been able to work in previous years," he said. He mentioned that our statistics were focused on what we were able to reach in the targeted areas as a result of the ongoing war, rather than a detailed field study.