Over 12,000 civilians killed in Saudi war

Yemenis search under the rubble of damaged houses following Saudi air strikes on the outskirts of Sana’a on February 1, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Almost two years into the Saudi war on Yemen, a rights NGO says the military campaign has cost the lives of more than 12,000 civilians.

In a report released on Thursday, Yemen’s Legal Center for Rights and Development, an independent monitoring group, put the civilian death toll in war-torn Arab country at 12,041.

The fatalities, it said, comprise 2,568 children and 1,870 women.

The rights body said the bombings have also wounded 20,001 civilians, including 2,354 children and 1,960 women, while more than four million others have been displaced.

Infographic, released by Yemen’s Legal Center for Rights and Development NGO, shows a breakdown of the human and material losses suffered during the Saudi Arabian invasion of the impoverished country.

Recounting the damage to Yemen’s already-flimsy infrastructure, the center said Saudi strikes had razed 270 medical centers, 25 media institutes, more than 402,076 houses and 706 mosques.

Armed with American and British ammunition and European warplanes, among other Western-supported military hardware, the kingdom launched the campaign against Yemen in March 2015.

The offensive is aimed at reinstalling the former Yemeni government, a close Riyadh ally.