WASHINGTON -- The United States is terminating some sales of military arms to Saudi Arabia over concerns about the killing of civilians in Yemen by a Saudi-led coalition, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday, while ramping up support for Saudi's border defenses and other intelligence-sharing. The United States will also retool its training for the Saudi air force to resolve "some of their structural, endemic problems with their targeting practices," the official said, and will maintain only a small presence of U.S. military personnel at a Saudi command center in Riyadh. And the U.S. is increasing the amount of information and analysis it shares with Saudi Arabia about threats to the Saudi border, reflecting Saudi concerns about extremists crossing over the border from Yemen to launch attacks inside Saudi Arabia. While the U.S. has been dismayed by the brash way the Saudis have prosecuted the conflict, the Obama administration has sought to keep the pressure on the Houthis, whose failure to abide by previous cease-fire deals has vexed diplomatic efforts to reduce violence. "It was an interagency review, involving the State Department, Department of Defense and other relevant departments and agencies responsible for security assistance programming," according to a US defense official. The decision to pull back planned sales of precision-guided munitions stems from a review ordered by the White House in October following the bombing of a funeral hall in Yemen that killed more than 140 people, thrusting longstanding concerns about civilian casualties into the spotlight. Human rights groups have said the Saudis have targeted houses, hospitals and schools, and have pressured the U.S. to withdraw support for the Saudi coalition, which is fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The United States is to limit military support to Saudi Arabia's military intervention in Yemen amid concerns over rising civilian casualties.