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Human Rights Watch Urges US Govt End Munitions Sales to Saudi Arabia

© AP Photo / Ali al-HassanyPeople gather at the site of Saudi-led airstrikes in Sanban, a region in Dhamar province 113 km (70 miles) southeast of the capital, Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015.
People gather at the site of Saudi-led airstrikes in Sanban, a region in Dhamar province 113 km (70 miles) southeast of the capital, Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015. - Sputnik International
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Human Rights Watch said that the Obama administration should cancel its plans to sell bombs to Saudi Arabia until Riyadh’s alleged violations of international law in Yemen are investigated.

View from Kingdom Tower in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. - Sputnik International
US, France Must Stop Turning Blind Eye to Saudi Radicalizing Programs
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Obama administration should cancel its plans to sell bombs to Saudi Arabia until Riyadh’s alleged violations of international law in Yemen are investigated, Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

"The US government is well aware of the Saudi-led coalition’s indiscriminate air attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians in Yemen since March," Human Rights Watch Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director Joe Stork said in the statement issued on Wednesday.

On November 17, 2015, the US Department of Defense announced that the State Department had approved a sale of $1.29 billion worth of air-to-ground munitions such as laser-guided bombs and "general purpose" bombs with guidance systems to Saudi Arabia.

"Providing the Saudis with more bombs under these circumstances is a recipe for greater civilian deaths, for which the United States will be partially responsible," Stork said.

Human Rights Watch noted that the US Congress has played a role in opposing sales of American weapons used in violation of the laws of war and should do so in this case.

More than 2,500 civilians have been killed in Yemen, most of them in air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition against the country’s opposition Houthi forces, according to the UN.

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