Riyadh, January 13 (RHC)-- Saudi Arabia has admitted that its military has used cluster bombs in the aggression against Yemen. The spokesman for the Saudi military said Tuesday that Riyadh had used cluster bombs in an airstrike on the northwestern areas of Yemen.
Ahmad al-Asiri claimed however that the military used cluster bombs just once in Hajjah Province to attack cars belonging to Yemeni fighters. The attack was carried out nearly nine months ago, when the Riyadh regime began the campaign, the military official said.
The news comes against the backdrop of a growing body of evidence on the use of cluster bombs by Saudi Arabia. The United Nations and other international organizations say investigators have found remnants of such bombs in Hajjah and around the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.
The UN human rights office said in early January that it had received reports that Saudi forces used cluster bombs in Hajjah, adding that a UN team found remnants of 29 cluster submunitions in the village of al-Odair. Local sources in Hajjah also confirmed the repeated use of the bombs in attacks against villages, saying the airstrikes had caused significant loss of life among the civilians.
Reports have emerged over the past days showing that Saudi warplanes have repeatedly pounded with cluster bombs the positions of the Houthi Ansarullah movement and its supporters in Sanaa.
