A series of Saudi-led coalition air strikes which killed 26 children in Yemen in June amount to war crimes, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

“The attacks, which struck four family homes and a grocery, in one case killing 14 members of the same family, caused indiscriminate loss of civilian life in violation of the laws of war. Such attacks carried out deliberately or recklessly are war crimes,” the New York-based HRW said.

Saudi Arabia has been since March 2015 leading a brutal campaign against Yemen, in a bid to restore power to fugitive ex-president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Thousands of Yemeni have been martyred in the aggression, with the vast majority of them were civilians

HRW is urging the United Nations Human Rights Council, which is currently in session, to return the coalition to its yearly “list of shame” for violations against children in war.

The UN blacklisted the coalition after concluding in a report released one year ago that it had been responsible for the majority of children’s deaths in Yemen.

But in an embarrassing climbdown, the world body then announced that the coalition would be removed from the list.

The then UN chief Ban Ki-moon admitted at the time that the decision was influenced by threats from Saudi Arabia and its allies to cut off funding to UN aid programs.

Saudi Arabia holds a seat on the 47-member Human Rights Council, re-elected in October last year in a vote sharply criticized by rights groups.

Source: AFP