Date: Aug 14, 2018 Source: The Daily Star 40 children killed in Yemen bus strike: new Red Cross toll Agence France Presse SANAA: Forty children were among 51 people killed in an Arab coalition air strike on a bus in rebel-held northern Yemen, the Red Cross said in a new toll Tuesday. Fifty-six children were also among the 79 people wounded in the Thursday strike on Saada province, a rebel stronghold that borders Saudi Arabia, the International Committee of the Red Cross said. Mourners bury Yemeni kids killed in coalition strike Reuters SAADA, Yemen: Thousands of mourners Monday buried dozens of children killed in an Arab coalition airstrike on a bus in northern Yemen, one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in the 3-year-old war. At least 40 children were killed in Thursday’s raid, which hit the bus as it drove through a market of Dahyan, a town in Saada, the armed Houthi group that controls the province said. Amid outrage from international human rights groups and U.N. officials, Riyadh continued to defend the raid as a “legitimate military action” intended to hit Houthi leaders, a day after it authorized a coalition investigation of the strike. Wooden coffins, most with a picture of a child, were taken by cars and carried by pallbearers to a graveyard from a square where prayers were held earlier. “Death to America, death to Israel,” the crowd chanted, echoing the Houthis’ slogan. The shrouded bodies were removed from the coffins and placed in a row of unmarked graves that had been dug Friday. “My son went to the market to run house errands and then the enemy airstrike happened and he was hit by shrapnel and died,” Fares al-Razhi said, mourning his 14-year-old son. “For my son, I will take revenge on Salman and Mohammad bin Zayed,” he added, referring to leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Gulf states are leading the alliance of Arab countries that intervened in Yemen’s war in 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognized government that was expelled from the capital Sanaa by the Houthis in 2014. The coalition said Friday that it would investigate the strike after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack and called for an independent probe. But Saturday, state news agency SPA said Riyadh’s mission to the world body delivered a message to Guterres reiterating that the raid was “legitimate” and targeted Houthi leaders “responsible for recruiting and training young children.” “War can’t be a clean operation unfortunately,” UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash told reporters in Dubai when asked about the Saada attack. “I’m not going to come here and say war led by us can be a clean operation.” “But I will say all parties need to accept their part in what they are doing today,” he added. The coalition initially said after the attack that the strike had targeted missile launchers that were used by the Houthis to attack the southern Saudi province of Jizan. The Houthis’ Health Minister Taha Mutawakil said last week that the number of casualties stood at 51 killed including 40 children, and at least 79 people wounded, of which 56 were children. The International Committee of the Red Cross reported the same toll Friday, citing authorities in Saada. The Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV quoted a health official Monday as saying another child had died from his wounds, raising the toll to 52. The head of the Houthis’ Supreme Revolutionary Committee Mohammed Ali al-Houthi attended the funeral and blamed the United States for “this ugly massacre of Yemeni children.” A U.S. military spokeswoman said U.S. forces were not involved in Thursday’s airstrike. The U.S. State Department urged the alliance to “conduct a thorough and transparent investigation.” U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Sunday that he has dispatched a three-star general to Riyadh to “look into what happened.” In other developments, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi held a meeting with his Yemeni counterpart Monday, where he voiced his concerns about security in the Red Sea following an attack by the Houthis on two oil tankers. Speaking at a joint news conference with Yemeni President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi, Sisi also said Cairo supported the Yemeni government and was committed to helping Yemen regain its security after more than three years of a war that has killed thousands of people. “We categorically reject that Yemen would become a foothold for the influence of non-Arab forces or a platform for security and stability threats against the brotherly Arab countries or freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait,” Sisi said. Yemen lies along the southern end of the Red Sea, one of the most important trade routes in the world for oil tankers. Hadi said he had briefed Sisi on what he called Iranian support for the Houthis in endangering security in the Red Sea.