\n The Saudi-led coalition bombing rebels in Yemen denied Sunday renewed accusations of dropping cluster munitions in the country after UN chief Ban Ki-moon said their use may be a \"war crime\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri told AFP that the alliance \"denies using cluster bombs in Sanaa\", the Yemeni capital.\n<\/p>\n
\n He was responding to a report issued Thursday by the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), which quoted Sanaa residents describing a January 6 attack consistent with airdropped cluster bomb use.\n<\/p>\n
\n Assiri said the coalition has admitted to previously using CBU-105 cluster bombs against rebel vehicles.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Now they don't have any more vehicles so we don't use it,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n He described HRW's report as \"very weak\", adding that \"they didn't show any evidence.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Assiri said the coalition didn't possess the specific munition detailed in the report, adding that 90 percent of coalition operations in Sanaa are directed against Scud missile launchers.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"You cannot use a cluster bomb against Scud launchers,\" Assiri said. \"We have nothing to hide.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n There has been widespread international concern about the high number of civilian casualties in Yemen.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Saudi-led coalition has been supporting Yemeni forces since March against Iran-backed Huthi rebels and their allies, who seized territory from the internationally-recognised government.\n<\/p>\n
\n Cluster bombs contain multiple submunitions, which sometimes do not explode and become de facto landmines that can kill or maim long after they were dropped.\n<\/p>\n
\n The weapons are prohibited by a 2008 treaty adopted by 116 countries, but not by Saudi Arabia, its coalition partners, or the United States.\n<\/p>\n
\n On Friday UN chief Ban said he had received \"troubling reports\" of cluster bomb attacks in Sanaa.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The use of cluster munitions in populated areas may amount to a war crime due to their indiscriminate nature,\" he said in a statement.\n<\/p>\n
\n The office of the UN high commissioner for human rights said last week that its staff in Yemen had found remnants of 29 cluster bombs during a field visit to Yemen's Haradh district.\n<\/p>\n
\n In its report, HRW showed a picture of what it said were BLU-63 submunitions from a CBU-58 cluster bomb.\n<\/p>\n
\n Assiri called the report unprofessional and said the rights group did not contact the coalition.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"They collect information, I think, from the Huthi side,\" he said, referring to rebels.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Showing this kind of photo doesn't mean it is in Sanaa (and) doesn't mean it is from the coalition.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Assiri said the coalition has been targeting missile launchers which have fired \"indiscriminately\" on the Saudi border regions of Jazan and Najran.\n<\/p>\n
\n Around 90 civilians and soldiers have died from shelling and skirmishes in Saudi border regions since March when the coalition began air and ground action in Yemen.\n<\/p>\n
\n More than 5,800 people have been killed in Yemen since March, about half of them civilians, according to the United Nations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Saudi-led coalition bombing rebels in Yemen denied Sunday renewed accusations of dropping cluster munitions in the country after UN chief Ban Ki-moon said their use may be a \"war crime\". Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri told AFP that the alliance \"denies using cluster bombs in Sanaa\", the Yemeni capital. He was responding to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-25371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n