Over 550 civilians killed in Yemen conflict: U.N.

The U.N. said Friday that more than 550 civilians, including 115 children, have been killed in Yemen in the past month and 1,185 injured as combatants fight in neighborhoods and Saudi-led coalition warplanes pound Iran-backed militias from the sky.

Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the civilians were killed in the fighting between March 26 and April 22. The total death toll including both combatants and civilians is 1,080, the U.N. said.

Saudi coalition spokesperson brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri repeatedly said that Houthi militias were deliberately hiding in residential areas and between homes and that every effort to spare innocent lives had been taken.

Amnesty International also said in a new report that some of the airstrikes it examined in the capital of Sanaa and four other cities raise “concerns about compliance with international law.”

The air campaign that began March 26 “has transformed many parts of Yemen into a dangerous place for civilians,” the report said. “Millions of people have been forced to live in a state of utter terror, afraid of being killed in their homes.”

It said about 150,000 people have fled their homes the past month.

More civilian areas were hit Friday by warplanes, including a stadium in the southern town of Zinjibar and a courthouse in the town of Lahj, witnesses said. Casualties were not immediately known.

(With the Associated Press)