Another Saudi coalition airstrike hit two buses full of displaced Yemenis near Hodeidah, killing 17 and wounding 20 more:

At least 17 passengers fleeing escalating war in Yemen’s war-torn port city of Hodeidah were killed on Saturday when a Saudi-led coalition airstrike hit two buses near a security checkpoint, a provincial hospital official said. The airstrike hit the buses in Masbarah area at the top of Jabal Ras hill near a Houthi-manned security checkpoint south of the port city. “Most of the victims are women and children,” the official told Xinhua by phone on condition of anonymity. He said 20 others were wounded and were transported to several hospitals.

The Saudi coalition has shown blatant disregard for the lives of civilians in Yemen ever since they intervened in 2015. The attack on these buses full of internally displaced people is just the most recent example of how the coalition routinely targets civilian structures and vehicles. Each new bombing of civilians proves that the coalition is not making any effort to reduce harm to civilians. On the contrary, the coalition has consistently sought to exacerbate the suffering of the civilian population through its indiscriminate bombing, its attacks on civilian infrastructure, its systematic targeting of Yemen’s food production, and the blockade that has been starving the country for years. The coalition’s latest victims were people who were trying to flee from the attack on Hodeidah. Just like the displaced people who were slaughtered in the Aug. 23 massacre, these Yemenis were seeking refuge from the coalition’s Hodeidah offensive only to be blown up by coalition bombs as they tried to escape the battlefield.

US-Saudi massacre of today in Yemen! 37 Yemeni people were killed /injured by US-Saudi airstrikes while fleeing the non-stop bombings by US-Saudi war criminals. The victims were driving in these 2 buses in Jabal Ras area, coastal province of Hodeida, on the Red Sea. pic.twitter.com/LpHljNuec5 — Nasser Arrabyee (@narrabyee) October 13, 2018

The latest massacre of innocent Yemenis comes just two days after the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child called for an end to coalition airstrikes in Yemen. The committee cited the Aug. 9 school bus massacre that killed 40 children as an example of the atrocities that the coalition has committed against Yemeni civilians:

A United Nations body has called on Saudi Arabia to immediately halt its deadly air raids against civilians in war-torn Yemen and prosecute officials responsible for child casualties due to unlawful attacks. The statement by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on Thursday also said the investigative mechanism set up by the Saudi-UAE coalition to probe the bombing of a school bus in Yemen’s Sadaa in August was not credible.

The U.S. supports the offensive that caused these people to flee their homes, and our government arms and refuels the coalition bombing campaign. Our government is aiding a military campaign that puts the lives of hundreds of thousands of Hodeidah residents at risk and potentially threatens millions more if the port is damaged or shut down, and it makes possible the bombing campaign that massacres displaced Yemenis as they try to reach safety. This is why Congress should block all arms sales to the Saudis and Emiratis and cut off all military assistance to the coalition war.