US lawmakers demand answers after scores of children killed in Yemen airstrike

Jane Onyanga-Omara | USA TODAY

Democratic U.S. lawmakers are demanding answers from the Trump administration after scores of children were killed in an airstrike on a school bus in Yemen last week.

Yemeni health officials said at least 51 people were killed – 40 of them children – when the Saudi-led coalition against Iran-backed Shiite rebels known as Houthis bombed the bus in the province of Saada, northern Yemen, last Thursday.

The United States, the United Kingdom and France provide logistical and intelligence support to the Saudi-led campaign, which includes the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Saudi-led coalition first said the strike was "legitimate" and later said it would investigate "collateral damage," the BBC reported.

Houthi officials called the strike a "crime by America and its allies against the children of Yemen,” according to the BBC.

Thousands of people attended the mass funerals of the children in rebel-held Saada earlier this week. Most of the children, who were returning from a summer camp, were 10 to 13, the United Nations said. More than 70 people were injured, according to the Red Cross.

Democratic House and Senate members wrote three letters to U.S. defense officials demanding answers about U.S. involvement in the civil war, which has been raging for more than three years.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote to U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Joseph Votel for details about how the U.S. supports the Saudi-led bombing campaign, the Intercept reported.

Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a Pentagon spokesperson, told USA TODAY in a statement Thursday that the United States "urged the Saudi-led coalition to conduct a thorough and comprehensive investigation of the strike and to release the results publicly."

Rebarich said U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael X. Garrett has "pressed the Saudis" to devote the necessary resources to the investigation.

"We call upon all parties to take all feasible precautions to avoid harm to civilians," Rebarich said in the statement. "We have consistently discussed and reinforced procedures to limit civilian casualties."

House Democrats wrote to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Intelligence Director Daniel Coats requesting a briefing about the U.S. involvement in the conflict, the Washington Post reported.

And Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., wrote Defense Department Inspector General calling for an investigation into whether U.S. personnel supporting the Saudi-led coalition were violating U.S. or international law.

On Monday, President Donald Trump signed a $716 billion defense bill into law that included a measure requiring his administration to determine whether the U.S. or its partners violated U.S. law or policy while assisting the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. Trump has raised objections to 52 provisions of the new law, including that measure.

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