Yemeni Nationals Sue Major US Arms Manufacturers for War Crimes in Crisis-Ridden Nation
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A group of Yemenis filed a lawsuit in a US district court against American arms manufacturers Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics, accusing them of "aiding and abetting war crimes and extrajudicial killings" by supplying weapons to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.
The suit by the group of seven Yemeni individuals also names the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin.
The plaintiffs claim that weapons supplied by US companies have allowed indiscriminate and brutal bombings, leading to the deaths of thousands of civilians and worsening Yemen's humanitarian crisis.
The lawsuit is being filed under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA), a 1991 US law that allows victims of torture to sue for compensation from their tormentors if the accused are in the US.
The Saudi and Emirati crown princes are also named in the suit under the Alien Tort Statute, a law that grants federal courts jurisdiction over violations of international law.
The plaintiffs represent victims of two bombings in Yemen: a wedding in 2015 and a funeral in 2016, in which over 140 people were killed.
The lawsuit was filed by Terrence Collingsworth of International Rights Advocates and comes after the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) announced its intention to take legal action against the British government over its arms sales to Saudi Arabia in Yemen.
Meanwhile, the Yemen Executive Mine Action Center reported that 12 civilians were killed and 34 others injured in February due to explosive remnants of the Saudi-led aggression.
The number of Yemenis who have fallen victim to cluster bombs since the beginning of the war now stands at over 25,000 civilians.
Yemen has been in a state of crisis since Saudi Arabia, with support from the US and other Western states, launched a devastating war on the country in March 2015, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths and exacerbating the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
