The London-based rights group called on "all states who supply arms to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, including the USA and UK, to suspend all transfers of weapons which are being used to commit violations of international law".
Riyadh and its allies launched air strikes in Yemen in late March to support forces loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels overran much of the country.
Rights watchdogs have accused the coalition of breaking the laws of war and killing civilians, but it has repeatedly denied targeting them.
In a report titled "Our kids are bombed", Amnesty said it investigated five air strikes on schools between August and October, killing five civilians and injuring at least 14, including four children.
"In some cases the schools were struck more than once, suggesting the strikes were deliberately targeted," the group said.
Students were not inside the schools during the attacks, but the strikes caused serious damage that has disrupted the education of more than 6,500 children in Hajja, Hodeida and Sanaa provinces, it said.
"No evidence could be found in any of the five cases to suggest the schools had been used for military purposes," it added.
Lama Fakih, senior crisis advisor at Amnesty, said: "Schools are central to civilian life, they are meant to offer a safe space for children.
"It is simply appalling that the USA and other allies of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition have continued to authorise arms transfers to members of the coalition," she said.
In November, Washington approved a $1.29-billion deal to replenish the Saudi air force's arsenal.
The order included 6,300 Paveway II and Paveway III laser-guided bombs, 12,000 general purpose bombs weighing and 1,500 devastating "bunker busters" designed to smash hardened concrete structures.
The United Nations says more than 5,700 people have been killed in Yemen, about half of them civilians, since March when fighting intensified. More than 25,000 have been wounded.
[i24news.tv]
11/12/15
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Civilians killed by air strikes at Yemeni wedding party ‘deeply disturbing,’ says UN humanitarian chief
Arab coalition denies striking wedding party in Yemen
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Frustrated at a worsening humanitarian crisis and rising civilian death toll in Yemen, Western nations are quietly increasing pressure on Saudi Arabia to seek a political deal to end the nearly nine-month conflict, U.N. diplomats said...
ReplyDeleteWhile much of that pressure has been applied through discreet diplomacy, they said, the United States will shine a global spotlight on the conflict when it chairs a public United Nations Security Council meeting on Yemen on Dec. 22.
It will be the first open council session on Yemen since Saudi Arabia led an Arab military intervention in March to try to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government and fend off what it sees as creeping Iranian influence. The Saudis say rival Iran has long supported Houthi rebels in Yemen.
"We expect the Saudis will hear some honest criticism when the council meets," one senior Security Council diplomat said on condition of anonymity. "It's long overdue."
U.N.-sponsored peace talks are due to begin on Tuesday with the aim of securing an agreement on a new government, which Western diplomats say would have to include Houthis..........http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-un-idUSKBN0TU2BM20151211#TCtFgtGMwyuROT3J.99
11/12/15