SANA’A (Dispatches) – The “suffocating” siege imposed by the United States on Yemen has compounded the misery of war-weary people in the Arab country, the head of Yemen’s supreme political council says.
Mahdi al-Mashat said on Sunday that the U.S.-led blockade against Yemen is “part of its ongoing horrendous crimes” in the war-ravaged country.
Yemen has been beset by violence and chaos since 2015, when Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a devastating military campaign to reinstall the former regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in Sana’a.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemeni civilians and spawned the worst humanitarian catastrophe in modern world history.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF describes the Saudi-led war as “a living hell” for children, with 1.8 million under-fives suffering severe malnutrition.
Al-Mashat, pointing to the criminal collaboration between the U.S. and the Saudi-led military coalition, asserted that the kingdom has “sought to target” Yemeni people with the “American weaponry.”
The Saudi aggression has spawned horrendous human rights abuses and led to the killing of civilians, including women and children, in the Arab country, he noted.
The official referred to the Saudi airstrikes in the afternoon of October 8, 2016, which targeted the packed al-Kubra hall in Sana’a during a funeral, claiming at least 155 lives.
He described the incident as “one of the most heinous crimes” committed against the people of Yemen, which “showed the brutality of the American and Saudi aggression”.
“The pure blood spilled in this particular incident and other such incidents has no price but freedom and independence,” al-Mashat said.
Saudi Arabia has stepped up its military aggression in Yemen. According to Yemeni media reports, Saudi warplanes bombed the oil-rich province of Ma’rib at least 24 times early Monday, with al-Abdiyah being struck 21 times, Juba twice and Qaniyah once.
Earlier Sunday, Saudi Arabia admitted that it had bombed the city of al-Abdiyah 118 times in the past four days to prevent the advance of Yemeni army forces and popular committees.