The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights has strongly condemned the deadly Saudi-led airstrike in the country’s mountainous northwestern province of Sa'ada, which claimed the lives of more than a dozen people, describing it as a blatant violation of humanitarian principles.

The ministry, in a statement released on Wednesday, said the crime adds to the offenses that “the heinous coalition of aggression” has perpetrated against the Yemeni nation, and represents an outstanding example of the alliance’s violation of humanitarian principles and international human rights laws.

The statement added that the Saudi-led coalition presses ahead with its brutal campaign against Yemeni civilians and continues to target them through various methods, and without any human or international deterrence.

The ministry then called on Human Rights Watch, the United Nations and the international community to adopt an effective policy, which would put an end to the Saudi-led coalition’s aggression against Yemen and hold to account the perpetrators of war crimes.

It also renewed the call for the formation of independent and impartial international committees to investigate all crimes that members of the alliance, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in particular, have committed against Yemen, emphasizing that the proceedings must not be subject to a statute of limitations.

The ministry finally censured the international community’s silence on the crimes against humanity that the Saudi-led military coalition is committing in Yemen, calling for an active intervention to stop the crimes and spare civilians from massacre and destruction that has negatively affected all aspects of life in Yemen.

On Tuesday evening, at least 17 people, including a dozen African migrants, lost their lives when Saudi artillery units targeted a popular market in al-Raqou area of the Monabbih district of Sa'ada province. The attack left several people injured as well.

Yemeni forces, allies shoot down Saudi-led surveillance drone in Najran

Meanwhile, Yemeni army forces, supported by allied fighters from Popular Committees, have intercepted and targeted an unmanned aerial vehicle belonging to the Saudi-led military coalition in the skies over the kingdom’s southern border region of Najran, in retaliation for the alliance’s military aggression against their conflict-stricken country.

An unnamed Yemeni military source told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that Yemeni air defense units shot down the drone over Murabba’ al-Shabaka area of the region, situated 844 kilometers (524 miles) south of the capital Riyadh, on Tuesday evening.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past four and a half years.

The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.