US complicit in air strike that murdered dozens of children in Yemen
10 August 2018
Countless atrocities have been carried out by Washington and its local proxies over the 17 years since the launching of the “global war on terror,” a pretext invoked to justify wars of aggression aimed at solidifying the control of US imperialism over the oil-rich and strategically vital Middle East.
Entire countries, including Iraq, Libya and Syria, have been decimated, and entire cities, including Mosul and Raqqa, have been reduced to smoking rubble. The victims, the dead and maimed, number in the millions, while those driven from their homes include many tens of millions.
Still, there are specific acts of sheer brutality and contempt for human life that stand out and sum up the criminality of this entire enterprise. Such was the bombing carried out Thursday in Yemen by a Saudi warplane, a jet supplied by the US, which dropped American-made bombs and missiles and was guided to its target with the aid of US intelligence officers, and refueled in midair by American tanker aircraft.
The target selected was a crowded marketplace area in the center of the city of Dahyan in Yemen’s northern province of Saada.
Witnesses reported that the warplanes had been hovering over the town for over an hour, so those ordering the strike had to have a clear idea of what they would be hitting. Residents said they didn’t believe a crowded market would be targeted so they went about their business.
The Saudi warplane scored a direct hit on a bus loaded with school children traveling through the market from their summer camp to a mosque for an annual celebration marking the end of summer vacation.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported that its hospital had received the lifeless…