Boys demonstrate outside the offices of the United Nations in Sanaa, Yemen to denounce last weeks air strike that killed dozens including children in the northwestern province of Saada, August 13, 2018.
Thousands of mourners on Monday buried dozens of children killed in a Saudi-led coalition air strike on a bus in northern Yemen, one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in the three-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 which controls the province said.
Wooden coffins, most with a picture of a child, were taken by cars and carried by pall bearers 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 on Friday.
Talks between Yemen's warring parties next month will focus on a transitional governance deal and disarmament, the U.N. special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, said in remarks published on Saturday.Griffiths is trying to negotiate an end to the three-year conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people and pushed Yemen to the verge of starvation.Air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition killed dozens of children traveling on a bus in the northern province of Saada on Thursday. U.N. chief Antonia Guterres has called for an independent investigation of the raid.Consultations are due to begin in Geneva on Sept. 6 on a framework for peace talks and confidence-building measures.UAE plans oil pipeline from Ethiopia to Eritrea"Primarily, we are trying to reach an agreement between the Yemeni government and (the Houthis') Ansarullah on the issues essential to ending the war and on a national unity government in which everyone participates," Griffiths told the Arabic-language Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper."This will require a signed agreement that includes setting up a transitional political operation under a national unity government ... and putting in place security arrangements for the withdrawal of all armed groups in Yemen and disarming them."Yemen's Houthis welcome UN call for investigation into air strikesHe said the consultations would lead to direct negotiations.The coalition of Sunni Muslim Arab states backed by Western powers including the United States and Britain intervened in Yemen's civil war in 2015 against the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement to restore the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.Griffiths efforts have succeeded so far in averting a full assault by the military alliance on the Houthi-held main port city of Hodeidah in western Yemen, but battles and attacks have continued in the impoverished Arab state where the Houthis control the most populated areas and the capital Sanaa.UN chief condemns attack on school bus in YemenPrevious U.N.-sponsored peace talks have failed to end the conflict, widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and regional foe Shi'ite Muslim Iran.The last round of talks in 2016 ended with Hadi's government walking out after the Houthis rejected a U.N. proposal calling on the group to quit three main cities, including Sanaa, ahead of talks to form a government.Dozens killed, including children, in Yemen air strikesGriffiths said discussions on a new government should also include representatives from the General People's Congress, once headed by slain former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and the southern separatist movement, a powerful force that has provided many of the coalition-backed fighters against the Houthis."The future of the South will not be discussed in these consultations, but will be part of the Yemeni dialogue in the transitional period," Griffiths said, adding that the United Nations supported a united Yemen. 
UN envoy says Yemen talks to focus on transition, disarmament
"My son went to the market to run house errands and then the enemy air strike happened and he was hit by shrapnel and died," said Fares al-Razhi, mourning his 14-year-old son.
"For my son, I will take revenge on Salman and Mohammed Bin Zayed," he said, referring to leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Gulf Arab states are leading the alliance of Sunni Muslim countries that intervened in Yemen's war in 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognised government that was expelled from the capital Sanaa by the Houthis in 2014.
The coalition said on Friday it would investigate the strike after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack and called for an independent probe.
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 Houthis welcome UN call for investigation into air strikesPierce 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.UN chief condemns attack on school bus in YemenThe 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”.
UN calls for investigation into Yemen airstrike
But on Saturday, state news agency SPA said Saudi Arabia'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. "But I will say all parties need to accept their part in what they are doing today."
TALKS PLANNED
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 estimated 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 on Friday, citing authorities in Saada.
Air strikes killed dozens of people, including children, in Yemen's Saada, Yemeni medical sources and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday."Scores killed, even more injured, most under the age of 10," Johannes Bruwer, head of delegation for the ICRC in Yemen, said in a twitter post.Saudi Arabia and Sunni Muslim allies have been fighting in Yemen for more than three years against the Iran-aligned Houthis, who control much of north Yemen including the capital Sanaa and drove a Saudi-backed government into exile in 2014.There was no immediate comment from the Saudi-led coalition. 
Dozens killed, including children, in Yemen air strikes
The Houthi-run al-Masirah TV on Monday quoted a health official 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".
The United States and other Western powers provide arms and intelligence to the alliance, and human rights groups have criticised them over coalition air strikes that have killed hundreds of civilians at hospitals, schools and markets.
A U.S. military spokeswoman said U.S. forces were not involved in Thursday's air strike. The U.S. State Department urged the Saudi-led coalition to "conduct a thorough and transparent investigation".
The coalition says it does not intentionally target civilians and has set up a committee to probe alleged mass casualty air strikes, which has mostly cleared it of any blame.
The Houthis have also been criticised by rights groups.
The U.N. special envoy to Yemen has been shuttling between the warring parties ahead of holding consultations in Geneva on Sept. 6 to try to end the conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people and pushed the impoverished Arab country to the verge of starvation, according to the United Nations.