American Weapons Dealers are Sued for “Aiding and Abetting” War Crimes in Yemen
Jose Nino
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Seven Yemeni nationals have sued American defense contractors such as Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics for “aiding and abetting war crimes and extrajudicial killings” by selling armaments to Gulf Arab nations prosecuting a war in Yemen.
Saudi and Emirati leaders Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) and Mohammed bin Zayed (MbZ) were also targeted in the lawsuit, in addition to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“Year after year, the bombs fell – on wedding tents, funeral halls, fishing boats, and a school bus – killing thousands of civilians and helping turn Yemen into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” the lawsuit declared, per a report by the Middle East Eye.
“Weapons supplied by US companies through sales unlawfully approved by US officials allowed Saudi Arabia and the UAE through the named Defendant officials to pursue an indiscriminate and brutal bombing campaign.”
According to a report by The Cradle, “The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the victims of two separate bombings in Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition — one for a wedding in 2015 and another for a funeral in 2016.”
Per a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), in October 2015, the Al-Sanabani family was preparing to celebrate a relative’s wedding when a coalition aircraft bombed the area, resulting in the deaths of 43 Yemenis, which included 13 women and 16 children.
In 2016, coalition jets dropped a US-manufactured GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bomb on a funeral procession, killing over 100.
Terrence Collingsworth of International Rights Advocates after the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) filed the lawsuit in the district court of Washington DC. Collingsworth filed the lawsuit under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA), a 1991 law that grants torture victims the power to sue for compensation from their aggressors if the accused parties are in the US.
The lawsuit claims that western-made bombs have killed over 25,000 civilians since the start of the US-backed war in 2015. This lawsuit will likely go nowhere, but the people who helped facilitate this slaughter in Yemen should be held accountable for their horrific actions. The war in Yemen is just another proxy war that this parasitic class has gone to great lengths in extending.
Nobody is above the law, not even the highest-ranking officials of the national security state. To restore sanity to foreign policy, these decision-makers must be held accountable and ultimately purged from key leadership positions. No questions asked.
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