US demands end to deadly Saudi airstrikes in Yemen

The US has called on its long-term ally Saudi Arabia to stop its airstrikes on Yemen, while suggesting the two-year conflict cannot be resolved militarily.

US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power said it is "incumbent on the Saudi-led coalition and the forces of the Yemeni government to refrain from taking steps that escalate this violence and to commit to the cessation of hostilities."

"After 19 months of fighting, it should be clear that there is absolutely no military solution to this conflict. Airstrikes that hit schools, hospitals and other civilian objects have to stop. In many cases these strikes have damaged key infrastructure that is essential to delivering humanitarian aid in Yemen."

Western governments have been repeatedly criticised by international rights organisations for their role in arming Saudi Arabia - which leads the coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The conflict has left more than 10,000 Yemenis dead, according to UN figures, which suggest more than half are civilians killed by the coalition.

"The US ambassador’s call for an end to indiscriminate airstrikes in Yemen would be more compelling if the US didn’t provide Saudi Arabia with some of the weapons that end up being used in these strikes,” Louis Charbonneau, the UN director of Human Rights Watch said.

On Saturday, at least 58 people were killed when a coalition airstrike hit two prisons in the western port city of Hodeidah.

The coalition has been repeatedly accused of war crimes in Yemen due to the mounting death toll and an increasing number of attacks on civilians which it has described as "errors".

In early October, the coalition was forced to launch an investigation after it was hit with international outrage after an airstrike on a funeral wake killed more than 140 mourners in the capital Sanaa.

Reports published on Monday suggest the Joint Incident Assessments Team (JIAT), the body set up by the Saudi-led coalition to investigate its own bombings against civilian targets, has appointed Bahrain’s military lawyer Colonel Mansour Al-Mansour as the group's legal adviser

'Whitewashing'

Reports published on Monday suggest the Joint Incident Assessments Team (JIAT), the body set up by the Saudi-led coalition to investigate its own bombings against civilian targets, has appointed Bahrain’s military lawyer Colonel Mansour Al-Mansour as the group's legal adviser.

"Al-Mansour has been promoted to whitewash the humanitarian crisis in Yemen," Sayed Ahmed al-Wadaei, the Director of Advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy told MEMO.

The colonel, who dished out a load of heavy convictions against Bahraini protesters involved in the Arab Spring, has on several occasions watered down allegations against the coalition.

Last August, al-Mansour suggested that a Medecins Sans Frontiere hospital which was struck by coalition airstrikes had hosted Houthi rebels - a claim denied by the international medical group.