Saudi Arabia announced it will hold an investigation into the “collateral damage” after an airstrike killed at least 40 Yemeni children in Saada province last week.
The airstrike, which Saudi Arabia initially said was a “legitimate military operation carried out in accordance with humanitarian law”, struck a bus carrying schoolchildren from a summer camp. At least 51 people were killed in the strike and a further 79 injured.
A mass funeral took place for the children this week, with thousands gathering to demonstrate against the attack.
Fares al-Razhi, mourning the killing of his his 14-year-old son said that he held the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates responsible for the killing. Houthi officials also said the attack was a "crime by America and its allies against the children of Yemen".
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an "independent and prompt investigation" into the air strike, whilst Henrietta Fore, executive director of the UN’s children’s fund, said the “horrific” attack marked “a low point in (Yemen’s) brutal war.”
Meanwhile Saudi Arabia’s state-funded Saudi television channel al Arabiya quoted an unnamed “senior official” as saying an investigation into the “collateral damage” from the airstrike had begun to “bring the perpetrators to account and compensate the victims”.
