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August 31, 2017

Yemen: Saudi-Led Airstrike Kills 5 Civilians at Checkpoint
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In Yemen, U.S.-backed Saudi coalition warplanes attacked a checkpoint
outside the capital Sana'a Wednesday, killing at least five civilians.
Witnesses said the attack came out of the blue.

Aly Abdullah: "We were surprised by the missile falling on the
checkpoint, which injured innocent people in their car while they were
on their way to celebrate the Eid holiday."

The latest civilian deaths came as human rights groups asked the U.N. to
establish an independent inquiry into war crimes and human rights abuses
in the Yemen conflict, which the U.N. says has killed more than 5,000
civilians since March of 2015. The U.S.-backed, Saudi-led war and naval
blockade has decimated Yemen's health and sanitation infrastructure and
has left 7 million Yemenis on the brink of starvation, while a cholera
epidemic has killed more than 2,000 people and sickened more than a
half-million others.


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