Iran has strongly condemned a deadly airstrike by the Saudi regime and its allies against a market in Yemen’s northwestern Sa’ada Province, saying the aggressors are attempting to make up for their defeats by massacring civilians.

Speaking on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi expressed sympathy with the families of the victims of Monday’s “savage and inhumane” attack by the Saudi-led coalition on the market in Sa’ada, which killed at least 13 people, including children, and injured 23 others.

“More than four years into the destructive war, the military aggressors have achieved nothing other than Yemen’s destruction and want to make up for their political and battleground defeats by killing women, children and civilians,” he said.

Mousavi also criticized the international community for keeping silent on the Saudi-led alliance’s war crimes in Yemen, adding, “The US and some European countries, which are selling weapons to the aggressors, are complicit in such atrocities and should be held responsible for their acts.”

The Saudi-led coalition launched the war on Yemen in March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall a former Riyadh-allied regime.

The Western-backed military aggression, coupled with a naval blockade, has killed tens of thousands of Yemenis, destroyed the country’s infrastructure, and led to a massive humanitarian crisis.

‘World should not turn its back on Yemen’

On Monday, a senior UN official highlighted the plight of war-stricken Yemen people, urging the international community “not to turn its back” on Yemen and to honor its promises to deliver aid to the impoverished state.

“Four years of conflict according to the UNDP latest report have set back Yemen by 20 years,” UN Development Programme administrator Achim Steiner told AFP after a visit to the country.

He also raised concerns about the humanitarian situation caused by the Saudi offensive, saying, “The world should not turn its back on Yemen.”

|It is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world and in some respects it is getting worse because hostilities and fighting still continue and the situation for 20 million or over two thirds of Yemeni citizens require humanitarian support,” he said. “Ten million people currently face the acute risk of famine.”