The Pentagon has warned Saudi Arabia that it could withdraw its military and intelligence support for its aggression in Yemen after dozens of civilians were killed in a strike on a school bus earlier this month, media reported on Tuesday, citing officials.
An airstrike carried out by the Saudi-led coalition in Saada, Yemen’s northern province, hit a bus carrying children from a summer camp on August 9, killing 51 people, including 40 children.
The CNN broadcaster has learned that US Defense Secretary James Mattis and Gen. Joseph Votel, head of US military operations in the Middle East, were “concerned” that Washington was supporting a Saudi-led campaign of airstrikes that killed multiple civilians.
According to the broadcaster, US military and intelligence support to Riyadh can be reduced “unless it tries to limit civilian deaths in its campaign in Yemen,” the report said.
Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich told Sputnik on August 16 that the US Department of Defense was working with Congress on the issue of US military involvement in attacks in Yemen.
The Arab impoverished country has been since March 2015 under brutal aggression by Saudi-led coalition, in a bid to restore control to fugitive president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi who is Riyadh’s ally.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and injured in the strikes launched by the coalition, with the vast majority of them are civilians.
The coalition, which includes in addition to Saudi Arabia and UAE: Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan and Kuwait, has been also imposing a harsh blockade against Yemenis.
Source: Sputnik
