US-made Bombs Used By Saudi-led Coalition In Yemeni School Bus Attack

US-made bombs were reportedly been used by the Saudi-led coalition in carrying out a deadly airstrike last week targeting Yemeni school bus in Sa’ada Province, killing at least 51 civilians, mostly children, a local journalist reports.

According to a report by RT, journalist Nasser Arrabyee tweeted photos on Saturday showing pieces of a Raytheon Mark 82 general-purpose free-fall bomb apparently recovered from the scene.

However, an Arab Coalition spokesperson, Legal Counsellor Mansour al-Mansour said on Sunday during a press conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh, that the coalition had received intelligence information indicating the presence of Houthi military commanders in a house located in a remote isolated area.

The Arab Coalition's Joint Incident Assessment Team (JIAT) in Yemen concluded that the targeting of the building was in accordance with the rules of humanitarian law, Saudi Gazette reported Sunday.

Al-Mansour added that the team also investigated the incident involving the “house in Lahij governorate”, which was targeted due to the presence of a gathering of armed members of the Houthi militias, and thus it is considered a legitimate military target, he said.

This is not the first time that Mark 82 pieces have been found at the site of Saudi-led air raids against civilian targets since the onset of the military campaign in early 2015.

The MK-82, a 500-pound (227kg) bomb produced by American company General Dynamics, also made headlines when it used by Saudi warplanes in a 2016 attack on a funeral in the capital Sana’a. That attack claimed over 140 lives and injured 525 others.

Washington is a major exporter of arms to Saudi Arabia, but the Pentagon claimed last week that it might be impossible to tell where the bomb used in Thursday’s attack came from.