Thousands take to streets in Sa’ada, censure bloody Saudi-led war on Yemen

syriatrJuly 13, 2018

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Thousands of Yemenis have taken to the streets of the northern city of Sa’ada to denounce the deadly campaign led by the Saudi regime and supported by the United States against the impoverished Arab country.

“Death to America and Death to Israel;” that was what banners read during the demonstration on Friday.

Demonstrators called for a boycott of American and Israeli products. They urged banning the sales of Western-made arms to Saudi Arabia.

The regime in Riyadh uses US-made warplanes among other military equipment to bombard Yemen.

Saudi Arabia was the first country US President Donald Trump visited after taking office last year. During his visit, it was announced that Washington could sell military equipment worth $110 billion to Saudi Arabia in a period of 10 years. The US Department of State said at the time that the deal’s worth could grow to $350 billion.

According to a study released in March, the United States sold weapons worth more than $650 million to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates the past year.

In April, the US administration gave the green light to a $1.3-billion sale of artillery to Saudi Arabia, ignoring reports that its weapons had greatly contributed to a high rate of civilian deaths in Yemen.

Washington has also been providing logistic and surveillance support to Saudi Arabia in the bloody campaign.

On Thursday, a news agency affiliated to Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement said nearly 280 civilians had been killed and 300 others injured in airstrikes on Sa’ada province in the first half of 2018. The victims included nearly 80 children and close to 40 women.

Since the beginning of the Saudi war on Yemen in March 2015, which was launched in an attempt to crush Houthis and reinstall the former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, Saudi warplanes have pounded the country day and night.