File photo
A bureau chief for Yemen’s official SABA news agency was killed in the central Al-Bayda province while covering fighting between the Yemeni army and Houthi rebels, a local military source said Thursday.
The source, who asked not to be named as he lacked authorization to speak to the media, said that Ahmed al-Hamzi -- SABA’s director in Al-Bayda -- had been killed by a Houthi artillery barrage.
A colleague of al-Hamzi was also killed in the shelling, the source added.
In July, al-Hamzi sustained moderate injuries after having been shot by Houthi fighters while covering clashes in Al-Bayda’s Horan district.
U.S. assistance to the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen has amounted to killing innocent Yemeni civilians, the New York Times argued in its newspaper.The op-ed piece cited reports by the UN and international watchdog Human Rights Watch, which said the Saudi coalition is responsible of war crimes in Yemen.The report also emphasized the role of the U.S. in not only selling weapons to the coalition but also providing military assistance."It’s time for the United States and its Western allies to stop selling arms or giving any military assistance to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners," the newspaper wrote Tuesday.Saudi-led coalition to respond to UN Yemen reportThe majority of U.S. aid to coalition forces in Yemen have been in aerial combat, which received criticism when a U.S. made bomb was used to target a school bus, killing dozens of Yemeni children.According to CNN, the weapon was a 500 pound laser guided MK-82 bomb made by Lockheed Martin, one of the top defense contractors in the U.S. The bomb was sold to Saudi Arabia in a State Department approved arms deal.The violence in Yemen has devastated the country's infrastructure, including its health and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.About 6,660 civilians have been killed and 10,563 injured in the Yemeni conflict since March 2015, according to the UN Human Rights Office.Saudi-led coalition air strikes in Yemen may amount to war crimes: UNInternational organizations are not the only ones who have become irritated by the record of the coalition forces.“Clearly, we’re concerned about civilian casualties, and they know about our concern,” Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian told the New York Times.The Times said the next step for the U.S. should be to cut off aid to Saudi Arabia, a move that is not likely to happen.Secretary of Defense James Mattis said Tuesday that while U.S. support to Saudi Arabia is not unconditional, it will continue to provide assistance to coalition forces fighting in Yemen.
US aiding Saudi war crimes in Yemen: NY Times
Al-Hamzi's death comes only two weeks after another Yemeni journalist, Ahmed al-Musabi, was killed while covering fighting in the province’s Malgam district.
Impoverished Yemen has remained wracked by conflict since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.
The conflict escalated the following year when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies launched a wide-ranging air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi gains in Yemen.
The violence has devastated the country’s infrastructure, prompting the UN to describe the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.
Yemeni Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile at Saudi Arabia's Najran region near the border between the two countries, the Houthi-controlled Masirah TV said on Wednesday.The Badr-1 missile targeted "a new military camp," it said, without indicating when the missile was launched.Saudi Arabia's military said on Tuesday its air defences intercepted a missile fired towards the southern city of Najran but there were no casualties.Saudi Arabia is leading a Western-backed alliance of Sunni Muslim Arab states trying to restore the internationally recognized government of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, ousted from the capital Sanaa by the Houthis in 2015.The Iran-aligned Houthis control most of the west of Yemen, including its Red Sea coast.U.N. human rights experts said in a report on Tuesday that both the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi militia may be guilty of war crimes in the conflict, which has raged for more than three years.The experts' panel said air strikes by the coalition in Yemen have caused heavy civilian casualties, raising concerns about its targeting process.The panel also accused Houthi fighters of restricting access on humanitarian aid and conscripting child soldiers. The Houthis regularly fire missiles on southern Saudi Arabia and occasionally aim for higher-value targets, such as the capital Riyadh or facilities of state oil company Aramco.The United Nations has convened talks in Geneva on Sept 6, the first effort to negotiate the war in more than two years.Saudi-led coalition to respond to UN Yemen reportSaudi Arabia says ballistic missile fired by Yemen's Houthis interceptedSaudi-led coalition air strikes in Yemen may amount to war crimes: UNSaudi detains Meccaimam for criticizing mixed gatheringsSaudi Arabia intercepts Houthi missile from Yemen
Yemen's Houthis say missile fired at Saudi Arabia's Najran region