Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Amnesty links British jets to Saudi attacks in Yemen




Group calls on government to suspend arms supplies to Saudi Arabia over deaths of Yemeni civilians in air raids

The Guardian

"Tornado fighter-bombers supplied by the UK to Saudi Arabia are "extremely likely" to have been used in attacks on civilians in Yemen, human rights campaigners said today.

Amnesty International UK called for the government to suspend all arms supplies to Saudi Arabia pending a full investigation.

The UK must ensure that any support it has provided for the jet fighters "did not facilitate violations of international humanitarian law, including possible war crimes, by the Saudi Arabian air force," it said.

Amnesty's report, Yemen: Cracking Down Under Pressure, found it was "extremely likely that the Saudi air force deployed UK-supplied Tornado fighter-bombers in the strikes" over northern Yemen in early November 2009......"