Conflicts to Watch in The New Millennium

and "raise concerns about compliance with the rules of international humanitarian
law." Their research indicates that there were at least 97 civilian deaths, including 33
children, and 157 civilians were wounded.
According to Farea Al-Muslim, direct war crimes were committed during the conflict; for
example, an IDP(Internally displaced person) camp was hit by a Saudi airstrike, while
Houthis sometimes prevented aid workers from giving aid. The UN and human rights
groups discussed the possibility that war crimes may have been committed by Saudi
Arabia during the air campaign.
US Representative Ted Lieu has criticized the Saudi-led attacks on Yemen: "Some of
these strikes look like war crimes to me, and I want to get answers as to why the US
appears to be assisting in the execution of war crimes in Yemen."
In March 2017, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that "Since the start of the current
conflict, at least 4,773 civilians had been killed and 8,272 wounded, the majority by
coalition airstrikes.... Human Rights Watch has documented 62 apparently unlawful
coalition airstrikes, some of which may amount to war crimes, that have killed nearly
900 civilians, and documented seven indiscriminate attacks by Houthi-Saleh forces in
Aden and Taizz that killed 139 people, including at least eight children."
Declaring The Entire Governorate Sa'ada A Military Target
On 8 May 2015, a spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition declared the entire city
of Sa'dah, with a population of around 50,000 people, a military target. According
to Human Rights Watch: "This not only violated the laws-of-war prohibition against
placing civilians at particular risk by treating a number of separate and distinct military
objectives as a single military target, but possibly also the prohibition against making
threats of violence whose purpose is to instill terror in the civilian population."
Human Rights Watch compiled the names and ages of some of the people killed in
Saada City between 6 April and 11 May. Of the 59 people they found information on, 35
were children and 14 were women. The organization’s analysis of air-strike locations in
Sa'dah showed that bombs fell across the city including near markets, schools and
hospitals.
U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Johannes van der Klaauw, agreed that the
Saud-led coalition's actions breached international humanitarian law. "The
indiscriminate bombing of populated areas, with or without prior warning, is in
contravention of international humanitarian law," he said. He added that he was
concerned that "scores of civilians were reportedly killed and thousands were forced to
flee their homes after the coalition declared the entire governate a military target."
Save the Children's Country Director in Yemen, Edward Santiago, said that the
"indiscriminate attacks after the dropping of leaflets urging civilians to leave Sa'ada
raises concerns about the possible pattern being established in breach of International
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