GENEVA/RIYADH: The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen may be responsible for “international crimes”, a category that includes war crimes and crimes against humanity, the top UN human rights official said on Friday. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned an air strike in Yemen this week and added that the coalition was “responsible for twice as many civilian casualties as all other forces put together”. More than 6,000 people have been killed since the coalition campaign began a year ago to fight Iranian-allied Houthis and forces loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh and to restore the president they ousted, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asseri said on Friday major combat operations were less extensive than earlier in the war and there were “good signs” the UN might soon restart peace talks between warring Yemeni factions. Houthi officials travelled to Saudi Arabia this month for secret talks on the conflict that led to a pause in fighting on the border, a main battlefront of the war, and a prisoner exchange. Asseri said that despite those “positive signs”, any formal peace talks would have to be carried out by Hadi’s internationally recognized government, not by Saudi Arabia, and under a UN umbrella. Tuesday’s strike near Mustaba in northwest Yemen hit an outdoor market and killed more than 100, a provincial health director and a UN official in Sanaa said, making it one of the deadliest attacks in the war.
