Amnesty slams US, UK for arming Saudi coalition in Yemen war

While all parties in the Yemen war are accused of neglecting civilian safety, the Saudi-led coalition, which intervened on the side of the government in 2015, is behind "the latest in a long string of potential war crimes" documented by Amnesty, said the London-based rights group.

"There is extensive evidence that irresponsible arms flows to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition have resulted in enormous harm to Yemeni civilians," said Lynn Maalouf, head of Middle East research at Amnesty.

"But this has not deterred the USA, the UK and other states, including France, Spain and Italy, from continuing transfers of billions of dollars worth of such arms.

"As well as devastating civilian lives, this makes a mockery of the global Arms Trade Treaty." The United States and Britain are both signatories to the treaty, which regulates the international trade of conventional arms for the purpose of "contributing to international and regional peace, security and stability" and "reducing human suffering".

Amnesty also slammed the Iran-backed Huthi rebels for potential war crimes, including indiscriminate artillery shelling, enforced disappearances and death sentences against dissidents and members of the Bahai minority.

On March 26, 2015, Saudi Arabia and its allies launched what would become an extensive military campaign on Yemen, sending aircraft and troops to back the government in its fight against the Huthis and recently slain former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Nearly 10,000 people have since been killed, triggering what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Amnesty said it had analysed video evidence confirming that at least two attacks on civilian targets, in August 2017 and January 2018, used bombs manufactured by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon of the United States.