UK Ambassador to the United Nations, Karen Pierce
The UN Security Council has called for a probe into a Saudi-led coalition airstrike in Yemen that left dozens of children dead.
The Security Council gathered Friday in a closed session to decide what should be done. Karen Pierce, the UK’s permanent representative to the UN, said the council called for a reliable and transparent investigation into the attack, which killed at least 50 children and injured 77 others.
Yemen's Houthi group welcomed on Friday a call by the United Nations for an independent investigation into Saudi-led coalition air strikes that killed dozens of people a day earlier, including children travelling on a bus."We welcome the call of the secretary general (of the United Nations) and we are ready to cooperate," the head of the Houthis' supreme revolutionary committee, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, said in a tweet. A Yemeni health official and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday than an air strike had hit the bus carrying children as it drove through a market in northern Saada province.U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday condemned the air strike and called for an "independent and prompt investigation," his spokesman said.UN chief condemns attack on school bus in YemenThe Western-backed alliance fighting the Iranian-aligned Houthis said the air strikes had targeted missile launchers used to attack the southern Saudi city of Jizan on Wednesday, killing a Yemeni civilian there.It accused the Houthis of using children as human shields and said the strikes were carried out in accordance with international humanitarian law.Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement in a three-year-old war, lies on one of the world’s most important trade routes for oil tankers, the Bab al-Mandeb strait. 
Yemen's Houthis welcome UN call for investigation into air strikes
Pierce stressed that all parties in Yemen should “respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, in particular the fundamental rules of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack”.
The Security Council “expressed their grave concern at these and all other recent attacks in Yemen. They called for a credible and transparent investigation and they send their condolences to the victims and their families," Pierce said in a statement to the press following the session.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned a gruesome attack Thursday in northwestern Yemen that killed at least 50 people, most of them children.Seventy-seven others were injured when a bus carrying children came under attack in Saada province, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).A statement on behalf of Guterres said local health authorities confirmed the casualties, the majority of them children between 10 and 13 years old."He [Guterres] expresses his deepest condolences to the families of the victims," said the statement. The UN chief called on "all parties to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law", saying they must take constant care to spare civilians and civilian objects in military operations.He also called for an independent and prompt investigation into the incident.The only way to end the Yemen conflict, said Guterres, is "a negotiated political settlement through inclusive intra-Yemeni dialogue". He urged all parties to de-escalate and to engage constructively in the political process.Yemen has remained wracked by violence since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains. In a statement, a Houthi spokesperson blamed the Saudi-led coalition for the attack.The coalition has yet to comment on the incident.Dozens killed, including children, in Yemen air strikesUS seeks to trigger chaos in Iran by reinstating sanctionsSecurity personnel, tribesmen killed in Yemen clashes
UN chief condemns attack on school bus in Yemen
The Saudi-led coalition also announced the launch of an investigation into the attack.
The airstrike, which hit a bus carrying children in Saada, Yemen on Thursday, was the latest in a series of attacks by the U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition in the country. The forces entered Yemen three years prior in order to fight Houthi rebels who had taken over the Yemeni government in the capital, Sanaa.
Yemen has been wracked by war since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including Sanaa.
The loss of the capital forced President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and his government to take up temporary residence in Yemen’s coastal city of Aden.
The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies -- accusing the Houthis of serving as Iranian proxies -- launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains and shoring up Hadi’s pro-Saudi government.
UN-sponsored peace talks held in Kuwait the following year failed to end the destructive conflict.
The violence has devastated Yemen’s infrastructure, including water and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.