Gain a global perspective on the US and go beyond with curated news and analysis from 600 journalists in 50+ countries covering politics, business, innovation, trends and more.<doc-sep>Younis learned to use a machine gun as a child, but he learned that being a soldier had more to it than holding a gun. He enrolled in a month-long program at a Saudi rehab center for child soldiers. He says the memories of the frontline still haunt his nightmares. NS Slug: SAUDI ARABIA INTERCEPTS MISSILES SHOT FROM YEMEN Synopsis: Saudi Arabia's air defense says it intercepts 7 missiles shot from Yemen. Video Shows: - Close up shot of ballistic missile that landed on a Saudi highway - Various shots of people around the missile - Night video of missile being intercepted and exploding and raining debris - More night video of missile interception Keywords: SAUDI ARABIA BALLISTIC MISSILES INTERCEPTED YEMEN Per Intl. Desk - PKG has to be fonted Gabriel Chaim and CNN Exclusive throughout. epa06803021 Yemeni forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition gather near the outskirts of the western port city of Hodeidah, Yemen, 12 June 2018. According to reports, the Saudi-led military coalition and Yemeni government forces continue to send reinforcements toward the port city of Hodeidah, preparing to launch an assault on the Houthis-controlled main port of Yemen. EPA-EFE/NAJEEB ALMAHBOOBI CNN gets rare access to the UAE military plane as it drops aid to Hodeidah, Yemen Why Yemen's civil war is far from over TOPSHOT - A photo taken on March 18, 2018, shows a Yemeni child looking out at buildings that were damaged in an air strike in the southern Yemeni city of Taez. / AFP PHOTO / Ahmad AL-BASHA (Photo credit should read AHMAD AL-BASHA/AFP/Getty Images) #NEWS: Girl in iconic NYT image depicting Yemen famine dies ~ Yemen Health Ministry Amal Hussein, a 7-year-old girl whose iconic image was captured by the New York Times has died, the Yemeni Health Ministry has confirmed. The stark photo of her emaciated body is one of the searing images of the Yemen's civil war. A week after the image was published, and amid the international furor over the brutal killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on the participants in Yemen's 3-year civil war to agree to a ceasefire "in the next 30 days". ~From journalist Hakim Almasmari in Sanaa. Opening line by CNN's Dan Wright in London. ~Background from excellent digital write by Kevin Liptak, Elise Labott, and Zachary Cohen TOPSHOT - A photo taken on March 18, 2018, shows a Yemeni child looking out at buildings that were damaged in an air strike in the southern Yemeni city of Taez. / AFP PHOTO / Ahmad AL-BASHA (Photo credit should read AHMAD AL-BASHA/AFP/Getty Images) People walk past damaged cars at the entrance of Al-Thawra hospital after an air strike in the Red Sea town of Hodeida on August 2, 2018. - At least 20 people were killed Thursday in an air strike at the entrance to a hospital and the bombardment of a fish market in Yemen's rebel-held port city Hodeida, medics and witnesses said. (Photo by ABDO HYDER / AFP) (Photo credit should read ABDO HYDER/AFP/Getty Images) (CNN) — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for an independent investigation into a Saudi-led coalition air strike in Yemen that killed dozens of children. The airstrike on Thursday hit a bus carrying children from a summer camp in a busy market area in the northern Majz District, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said in a statement. Condemning the attack, Guterres called for “an independent and prompt investigation” into the incident, Haq said. In the statement, Guterres added that all parties must “respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, in particular the fundamental rules of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack.” According to the area’s Houthi-controlled Health Ministry, 50 people were killed and 77 injured in the strike. The International Committee for the Red Cross said a hospital it supports in northern Saada province had received 29 bodies of “mainly children” younger than 15, and 40 injured, including 30 children. Ansar Allah Media Center/Twitter Footage from Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV appears to show a boy, carrying a UNICEF backpack, being treated for injuries. Houthi media broadcast graphic footage appearing to show the bodies of children. CNN has not independently verified these images. A video from Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV shows several boys who appear to have lost their limbs. Two or more wounded children are seen sharing a single hospital bed, and one child – soaked in blood – screams as he is being treated at a health center. In another video, which appears to show the immediate aftermath of the strike, several children’s bodies lie under a blown-up bus. Some boys are seen regaining consciousness, their faces bloodied and limbs charred. Ansar Allah Media Center/Twitter The boy is treated in a hospital after the strike. One boy, his face blackened by dust, is seen trying to hold his legs up, apparently unable to move. “My leg won’t get up,” he says. The attack came a week after a Saudi-led airstrike hit a busy fish market and the entrance to the country’s largest hospital, Al-Thawra, in the port city of Hodeidah, killing 55 civilians and wounding 170 others. Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition of Gulf states against Houthi rebels in Northern Yemen, after the Iran-backed rebels drove out the US-backed and pro-Saudi government. The war in Yemen is now the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 22 million people – three-quarters of the population – in desperate need of aid and protection, the UN says. After Thursday’s strike, Guterres renewed his call for a negotiated political settlement ahead of consultations scheduled in Geneva in September. Lise Grande, United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, urged all parties to come to the table. “The UN is offering a way forward through a dialogue on peace. We hope that all belligerents get to the peace table and start negotiating an end to this terrible war,” she said. Saudi denies targeting children<doc-sep>top stories SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up to receive our rundown of the day'sdirect to your inbox When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time.<doc-sep>Mattis, speaking during a trip to South America, played down the U.S. role in the Yemen conflict. The United States does assist the coalition in seeking to avoid strikes on protected locations, he said, but does not help with “dynamic targeting,” which occurs when pilots identify targets as they fly missions.<doc-sep>
The ICRC said a strike hit the bus driving children in Dahyan market, in northern Saada. ADEN - Saudi-led coalition air strikes on Thursday killed dozens of people, including children travelling on a bus through a market, in Yemen’s Saada province, a Yemeni health official and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. The Western-backed alliance fighting the Iranian-aligned Houthi group in Yemen said in a statement that the air strikes targeted missile launchers used to attack the southern Saudi city of Jizan on Wednesday, killing a Yemeni civilian there. It accused the Houthis of using children as human shields and said the strikes were carried out in accordance with international humanitarian law. Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam said the coalition showed “clear disregard for civilian life” as the attack had targeted a crowded public place in the city. The ICRC said a strike hit the bus driving children in Dahyan market, in northern Saada. “Our shops were open and shoppers were walking around as usual. All of those who died were residents, children and shop owners,” witness Moussa Abdullah, who was being treated in hospital for wounds, told Reuters. The ICRC said on its Twitter account that its medical team at the ICRC-supported hospital in Saada had received the bodies of 29 children, all under 15-years-old. The hospital also received 48 wounded people, among them 30 children. That was the toll at just one hospital. Abdul-Ghani Sareeh, from Saada health department, told Reuters: “A bus carrying children was targeted today while they were coming from summer school resulting in 43 martyrs and almost 63 wounded.” White plastic body bags filled the floor of a room in the ICRC-supported hospital. Injured children, bloodied, bandaged and screaming, lay on stretchers as doctors treated them, friends and relatives having carried some of them in their arms to be treated. “Scores killed, even more injured, most under the age of 10,” Johannes Bruwer, head of the delegation for the ICRC in Yemen, said earlier in a Twitter post. It was unclear how many of the dead in total were children and how many air strikes were carried out in the area, in northern Yemen, near the border with Saudi Arabia. “RED LINE” Saudi Arabia and Sunni Muslim allies intervened in Yemen’s war in 2015 against the Houthis, who control the most populous areas of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, and drove the internationally recognised government into exile in 2014. The United States and other Western powers provide arms and intelligence to the alliance, and human rights groups have criticised them over coalition air strikes that have killed hundreds of civilians at hospitals, schools and markets. “Grotesque, shameful, indignant. Blatant disregard for rules of war when a bus carrying innocent school children is fair game for attack,” Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a Twitter post. The World Health Organisation (WHO) representative in Yemen, Nevio Zagaria, said it has deployed emergency supplies. “I am extremely saddened by what happened in Saada ... The attack on civilians is not acceptable.” The alliance says it does not intentionally target civilians and has set up a committee to probe alleged mass casualty air strikes, which has mostly cleared the coalition of any blame. “Today’s attack in Saada was a legitimate military operation ... and was carried out in accordance with international humanitarian law,” the coalition said in the Arabic-language statement carried by SPA. “Targeting Saudis and residents in Saudi is a red line,” coalition spokesperson Turki al-Malki later told Al Arabiya TV. A US military spokesperson said: “US Central Command was not involved in the air strike in Saada.” Its last air strike in Yemen was 24 July against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, she said, adding that the command seeks to help partners mitigate civilian casualties. Fragments from the Houthi missile launched at Jizan Industrial City killed one Yemeni civilian and wounded 11, Saudi state media said earlier on Thursday. The Houthis have launched a series of missile strikes on the kingdom, including Riyadh, over the past year. Saada, the main stronghold of the Houthis, has mainly come under air strikes from the coalition as the mountainous province makes battles hard for pro-government ground troops. The Yemen war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than 2 million and driven the country to the verge of famine, according to the United Nations.