Written by Whitney Webb; Originally appeared at MintPress
The involvement of U.S. military intelligence in “fine-tuning” the targets of coalition airstrikes is likely the main factor explaining why the U.S. government has refused to condemn the strike and has refused to support an independent investigation into the atrocity.
Last Thursday’s horrific bombing of a bus full of school children in northern Yemen was carried out using a weapon sold to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition by the United States, photo evidence of the bomb site has revealed.
The photos taken at the scene by Ahmed AbdulKareem for MintPress News and by other local journalists indicate that a Mark 82 (MK-82) bomb, jointly manufactured by U.S. weapons companies Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, had been used in the attack.
The attack killed at least 50 and wounded over 60 others, the vast majority of whom were young children. Despite the fact that those targeted were civilians and mostly children, the Saudi-led coalition defended the strike, calling it a “legitimate military operation.”
MK-82 bombs, along with other “general purpose” MK series bombs, have been sold to the Saudi-led coalition by the U.S. through a series of contracts made in 2016 and 2017. In addition to last Thursday’s atrocity, the Saudi-led coalition has used the MK-82 bombs to target Yemeni civilians in the past, such as the coalition’s bombing of a funeral in 2016 that left over 140 dead and 525 wounded.
A close-up of a bomb fragment found at the scene of the airstrike on a Yemeni school bus last Thursday. Ahmed AbdulKareem | MintPress News
Over 10,000 MK-series bombs have been sold to the coalition since the war began, despite an international outcry over the coalition’s near-constant targeting of civilians and critical infrastructure. Overall, the U.S. has sold billions of dollars worth of bombs to the Saudis since the war in Yemen began in 2015, most recently approving over $110 billion in weapon sales to Saudi Arabia in May of last year.
The U.S. relies on “fog of war” excuse to avoid responsibility
Despite the fragments of U.S.-made munitions found at the strike site, the U.S. military has refused to acknowledge that the bomb used in the attack had been sold to the coalition by the United States. Army Maj. Josh Jacques — a spokesman for U.S. Central Command — told Vox that “We may never know if the munition [used] was one that the U.S. sold to them,” asserting as his reason the fact that the U.S. military doesn’t “have a lot of people on the ground.” Yet, the U.S. does have an unspecified number of ground troops active in Yemen who are involved with “intelligence sharing” and interrogations at UAE-run “black-site” prisons.
A child holds a fragment of the U.S.-made MK-82 bomb used in last Thursday’s massacre of Yemeni schoolchildren. Ahmed AbdulKareem | MintPress News
However, U.S. complicity in last Thursday’s bombing of a school bus goes far beyond merely providing the munitions used. Indeed, since this past June, the U.S. military has been providing the Saudi-led coalition “intelligence to fine-tune their [the coalition’s] list of airstrike targets” in Yemen — meaning that the U.S. military was either, at worst, involved in choosing the strike location, or at the very least aware of the coalition’s intention to target the school bus.
The involvement of U.S. military intelligence in “fine-tuning” the targets of coalition airstrikes is likely the main factor explaining why the U.S. government has refused to condemn the strike and has refused to support an independent investigation into the atrocity, instead supporting only a Saudi-led inquiry. Indeed, were the full extent of U.S. involvement in last week’s bombing made clear, the U.S. government could find itself in trouble, as certain government officials could be accused of complicity in coalition war crimes in Yemen.
However, the weapons companies themselves, regardless of the damage their products cause, continue to be free of any and all liability.
Whitney Webb is a staff writer for MintPress News and a contributor to Ben Swann’s Truth in Media. Her work has appeared on Global Research, the Ron Paul Institute and 21st Century Wire, among others. She has also made radio and TV appearances on RT and Sputnik. She currently lives with her family in southern Chile.
Stories published in our Daily Digests section are chosen based on the interest of our readers. They are republished from a number of sources, and are not produced by MintPress News. The views expressed in these articles are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect MintPress News editorial policy.
The pilot was also probably American.
Most Saudi air force pilots are either American or British, in this case probably American, because the Americans have a long history of bombing schools and hospitals.
To know what the priority targets are, all you need to do is review the Geneva Conventions list of illegitimate targets in war that constitutes war crimes.
And so they are now targeting school buses. Well I think the Coalition are really outdoing themselves and despite a very long list of deserving nations, may just win the coveted Nobel Prize for Atrocities – formally known as the Nobel Peace Prize.
Unfortunatly there is no news in bombardments as that.
Certainly the bulk of maintenance ground crews and aviation mechanics keeping Saudi warplanes in an active operational rotation, are ex-military contractors sourced from US/UK – the Saudi’s simply lack their own trained capacity for this. But it’s also fairly safe assumption that US/UK and possibly Israeli pilots are involved in active flight operations – either seconded from ‘allied’ services or as contracted mercenaries.
Fuuny that. It was rumoured that Israel ‘s extraordinary knocking out of Egypt’s airforce -on the ground ,in 1967- was done by American pilots pretending to be Israelis ,in Israeli planes! Hmm?
So You bring 51 years old romours. You have a win86 too.
Even true, its dirt. Most mainparts of Saudi-Arabia is runned by foreigners.
Saudi pilots? Never. Saudis, they r just stupid donkeys. Desert barbarians. Flying a fighter jet? Impossible. Israeli pilots fly their killing machines
The targeting of a busload of school children with a precision-guided bomb cannot have been accidental; it had to be deliberate. So why? Who benefits? Imagine me confronting a Zionist about the Gaza atrocities or the recent piracy in the Mediterranian; the Zionist is now conveniently armed with the counter “look what you just did in Yemen”. Is there any other conceivable explanation for this horror?
A lot of companies produce busses.
‘The attack killed at least 50 and wounded over 60 others, the vast majority of whom were young children. Despite the fact that those targeted were civilians and mostly children, the Saudi-led coalition defended the strike, calling it a “legitimate military operation.” ‘
I don’t often find my self at a loss for words. In some ways more honest than the usual US response. It was a mistake that we won’t apologize for, or prevent in future, and while we have your attention, fuck you!
It is called preemptive defence. Those children would grow up to be Houthi terrorists and so deserve to die. I love the new definition for self defence:
Preemptive Self Defence:
First use violence against a peaceful nation is justified if there is concern that the nation could pose a threat at some future date – certain criteria are used to determine if such concern is warranted and the most common are:
Failure to do as they are told
Have the crazy idea their resources should be for the benefit of their citizenry
Failure to carry out atrocities on behalf of their master
Refusal to allow military bases and enslavement of the economy to the IMF/World Bank
And the most favoured reason: You just don’t like them.
There has been figtings in Yemen since I was born. Dont tell me its a new thing. I was told by my parents, that Egyptians by Nasser was there too.
A joke to call it a peacefull nation and place.
Only true the temperature is up.
Why do You lie like that. Any factfinder can see, its wrong. I only can see arabistanis like You insist in staying illiterate and stupid.
Thanks for providing some comic relief to go with my morning coffee. I feel better already.
Another speculation. Kill Houti children as kind of genoside.
Not sure why but Empire seems hell bent to make everyone their enemy. So perhaps they really think they can live in old missile silos converted to bug out bunkers.
I had this saying on the nuke subs. “The time underwater is only limited by food and the sanity of the crew.”
To all the Empire big wigs; go spend a week in the bunker before you launch WW III. Then give yourself a slap, before we do!
Thats a good definition. But the airplane hit something else.
There is no honesty in that at all. NONE. More like Muslims are allowed to lie according to their religion in 2 acceptences – That does not say, they have all the time.
You all mix things up for excalation and no change. Hard to see any even small proposal for a way, so busses and the rest is not bombarded at all.
Gosh until you came along I have been so confused. Your astute lessons fill me with a sense of calm that only the truth can bring.
What do you want it’s as connected to reality as your response was?
“…Army Maj. Josh Jacques — a spokesman for U.S. Central Command — told Vox that “We may never know if the munition [used] was one that the U.S. sold to them…”
“We”?? Jesus… are you registered as a foreign agent of Saudi Arabia, Major? The little people in the U.S. like me will never know. YOU are not one of us. Please don’t presume to be in public statements on behalf of CENTCOM. It’s f’king creepy…
CENTCOM knows exactly who flew what into that bus. Your PR shop’s job in MacDill is to lie to the U.S. public and deny any uncomfortable truths about treasonous U.S. military support for the Saudi Wahhabi Caliphate in Riyadh, their UAE torture/merc buddies and their Shia genocide campaign in Yemen.
As a point of technical clarification for MintPress (and Ben Noron from the ZeroHedge article) the guidance fin being held up in the picture is not part of a ‘Mk-82 bomb’. The Mk-82 is the plain old 500 lb. low-drag unguided bomb body made by General Dynamics that looks like this:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8f592ab782b6e5d25f775baa871e697fd109b2c7e04f6505f7c7d3825448d15c.png
When the Air Force (U.S. or Wahhabi) or US Navy configures it for use by adding fuzing, fins, etc., they’ll designate it by that configuration.
Bolting on a Paveway II laser guidance kit to a Mk-82 makes it a GBU-12 to the AF. Lockheed-Martin supplies the Paveway II (now Paveway II Plus) kits. The child in the picture is holding NSN 1325-01-062-8064 FIN, GUIDED BOMB – one of four on the GBU-12 Paveway’s fin assembly and MAU-209 control unit screwed on the nose of the bomb. The other half of the Paveway kit on a GBU-12 is the airfoil group (much larger swing-out ‘fins’) attached to the tail.
Although the UK has sold many Raytheon-produced Paveway IV kits to Saudi Arabia (based on Paveway II components) and the guidance fins are nearly the same, we know what the child is holding is, in fact, part of a U.S. Lockheed-Martin Paveway II from the 94271 CAGE code identifying it as such.
This is not just weapon porn geekery. Even though you can guide the weapon in less-precise ways, one would expect that this was used as intended: laser designation of the school bus ‘target’ all the way until impact. It wasn’t a mistake. Paveway II’s accuracy is about a meter or two of circular error, so it would be hard to claim it just strayed off course of some other intended high-value target in Saada’s Dhahiaan market, like the Iranian-backed cucumber stand.
CENTCOM: We’ll never know if it was a U.S.-made weapon – the little Houthi brat could have found that fin anywhere in Yemen. He’s lying, just like all Shia – AND NOW HE MUST DIE!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cb5cdceced0052533626bba01a3707f7626bb51e6c1c6c2e47583960bc4f91d8.png
Again, thank you for the info!
Grafitti is information ??
Quiet horsefly
I find his replies so bizarre they are comic relief. I also think his replies suggest that he suffers from the condition of incomprehensiosis in which one uses neither the left side or the right side of the brain.
I comment what people read here and among that Yours.
I find it very bizar that the fight there is between Saudis prefaring old days for Houtis welll know for be only themselves and even something in the middle crashed.
Thats the bizarre. So yes as my comments by that becommes bizarre.
Arguing in many comment about a bomb at that bus is far out as I see it. Its the usual stuff seen during many years.
By the way its exact same thing in Syria. Here the Coalision might do it once compared to 5 or 6 times Russians and Damaskus do it. All of them should not be done at all.
Where are You morons in any peacetalk. I see NONE. You just infect the situation as much as possible and support war mongols on both sides as if You are paid for it.
Excellent information, thank you.
Now that said, I am concerned about Iranian backed cucumbers being available on the market – coalition airstrikes were suppose to have destroyed all food production and distribution infrastructure, obviously pilot reports of success are exaggerated.
I have a daily quota of a hundred dead babies to fill and I am counting on starving babies to meet my targets. And hitting that school bus didn’t help me either, we need to target all the markets selling food so we can get those babies starving again. Inform Coalition BBC (Broadcasting Bull Crap) System to announce new bombing campaign.
Announce that Iranian backed cucumber stands are legitimate military targets because Iranian cucumbers can be repurposed into precision guided bombs. This is because the Iranian designed MK-Cucumber can be fitted with the deadly Paveway II Cucumber-Plus targeting assembly. We cannot allow such dangerous weapons to fall into the hands of the Houthis.
Well after a long days hard work, time to take in a snuff film…
Fabulous comment, way to put centcoms lying ass in their place!!!
Funny comment. Even the most stupid see it and they diaperjump and flash too. Very funny.
Yout taling nonsense again!!! Have couple tuborgs you nake more sense wheb your tanked
A few days it would have been nice wirth a cold Tuborg under each arm. It has been very hot. Now we have recieved 30 mm rain.
I still think its funny to focus on one bomb as special made in USA. Almost all are.
Sorry for the dead one.
Another stupidist even wrote Yemen always have been a peacefull place – Always look at the bright side da dam, da dam da dam.
Yeah i hear you its been pkus 30 for a while here. That rain your getting was here last thursday.
Back to the article…saudis are not our friends at all, were all pissed that our governments is helping them…thats the issue
I see no friends there at all. The rest of the world need gas and all from there. Thats it.
Most ammo like that is USA made.
Very good comment. Laser guided bomb requires that someone other that the aircraft releasing this bomb is designating its target with laser beam. As you said, assy147214 shows us all we need to know.
man o man….how often do I have to explain our world , our satanic jew world………
Money,monetary system(be it gold diamonds fiat money bitcoin whatever) is controlled 100% by satanic jews.
Media,UN-investigation(lol) …its their game, its the jews game, its the devils game….
How can anyone expect to win at a game that is tilted, rigged…..its their game….in boxing for instance there is a sweet saying… “dont try to out jab a jabber” its his game……
There is no justice on our planet, so dont look for one……
jemen the massacre of innocent kids…..thats a through and through satanic operation, hear anything from anyone, be it uk,germany,france,italy???? well u can wait the next 1000 years and nothing will change….waiting for the satanic n1. slave usa ??? hahahahaaha….they wont even bother to save their own kids from the dailyy shootings of kids in the USA….its a satanic country……waiting for the UN??? a 100% satanic jew organization??? hahaha well keep on waiting, cause they aint gonna do diddley
people have to realize that those elites with their satanic jew masters are truly evil.pure evil.You cant reason with such beiings.Look at the illegal entity israel and the massacres of the palestinians for the last 70 years…and and and….anybody or anyone ever been held accountable? wont happen….its their ball game…remember the kid manning??? remember the videos???the massacres of civilians by us forces and their laughter on vid??that were videos,showing 100% war crimes as in conventions laid out…and and did anyone ever just be charged???wont happpen, its theri ball game….
what im tring to explain is that all aspects of life on our planet have been tilted upside down by satanic jews.So why bother playing their game.That goes for ALL aspects of life.Why work any where in a system created by evil beiings were I will never have a chance of succeding unless i do what iam beeing told to help exactly those mother fuckeers keeping their satanic agenda.I used to be a man like millions other working in a city, useless,wothrless work,payed just enough….now iam a 100% biological farmer, his own water,his own food,his own electricity.I dont play their game anymore, and i´m doing GREAT.Each day more and more people are waking up.Why be in a system that is rigged.Would anyone play a hand of poker with me, when I would tell u upfront that I hold 4 aces up mmy sleave? seriously thats the question…well if youre not insane NO ,ofcourse no, but in true life,every day life, people do play a rigged game, day in day out.
Back to jemen…..nothing, remember the satanic evil massacre of the funeral with 100´s of dead, and that the evil satanic coalition bombed the funeral, then waited for 15 minutes and bombed exactly the same place again with 100´s of dead??? that was months ago…so what happened???????????????
NADA ZERO NOTHING……………why…its their ball game
and the same goes for the evil satanic massacre of kids on a bus……..
NADA ZERO NOTHING will happen…………..cause its their evil satanic ball game………that their satanic jew masters ordered.period.
peace,love and harmony to all non jews
……all game…remember the kid manning??? remember the videos???the massacres of civilians by us forces and their laughter on vid??that were videos,showing 100% war crimes as in conventions laid out…and and did anyone ever just be charged???wont happpen, its theri ball game….
Well of course not. Funny how both US and Israel did not sign to be beholden to International Criminal court. So ..presto.us and Israel wont be charged for war crimes under current platforms. No matter! Nazis were prosecuted under a new platform and the same will happen to USrael.
Its the same nazis/trotsky scum infecting our planet since the 1920’s
You can take gas on that helped by Putin. Even extgra from his Bolsjoj theatre can be used, if You have a good test area.
Those Yemenis! Why do they hate us Dad? Oh, it is nothing darling, they just hate us because of our American Way and the Freedom we are lucky to have in our country.
Thats non facts. Its not about any americans at all.
Its about Saudis prefaring the old leader in the old days and Iran use that to help th Houtis. They certainly got help those Houtis.
All are helped there. Thats what friends are for. Hard to see Saudis are more or less friends.
Lol you cant even say saudis are our friends with a straight face….fuck off eurotrash
I never has. To me they are enemies creating a lot of very bad or worse then that. I am in no hooligan mode supporting anything from one of Your many frontlines.
I try to see all as they are with no mascare and limit. Should any western sekular support religios fanatism of the worst kind, where its big progres women can drive cars, some cinemas are opend but hardly more then that.
We live with that because of stability for oil and gas. For many years I have written for removing most arabaic and partly many muslims leaders should be moved away. Hard to see they support even their own populations.
But westerns think it can become worse and You after that get decades of chaos even any regime there has to sell oil.
My own solutuion, which include gas from Putin is, we all make us less dependent by making electricity by windmills and solarelectricy.
Ok i misunderstood you sorry. Russia and canada have enough oil and gas to push saudi out if we would work together, wont ever happen but its fun to dream.
stupid donk…..the saudiss cant even decide diddley…everything the saudis do since they were given arabia by the british pricks through the orders of them jews are on orders.
mohammed bin salman…his own security guards are all from the USA asshole.
the saudis are a slave race.
by the way jens, u from germany??? well then u should know that your country is under occupation since 1945 donky….and everything that germayn did since 1945 was ON ORDERS donky.pathetic german jew slave with his DDR chancellar merkel hahaha….and each day your germman women are getting raped by takfiri bastards which were let in by merkel on orders from the jews.
So better keep your stupid saudi remarks were they belong.up your occupied pathetic german asshole, because nobody on this planet takes any german serious.
Yes, Saudis do all of it and the rest are just serving tea for their wifes. Iranians do the same and missiles from them are stolen from them in their deep peace having even chocolate for the rich one, which make the missilies.
Its never You. NEVER. Americans do all. You all smell like the just cleaned behinds of babies and the skin is smoooth and gently like You too.
Americans do it, Westerns do it, Zionists do it Kurds do it.
So You there are lazy and unproductive.
Yes ,as they were in the Six Day War of 1967.
Kind of funny. Alle grenades probatly are made by USA. So why was that one different – apart from the bad killing.
Very manipulative article.
I think, nobody would be surprised about this news of USA involvement on this action. The question is …what is the intention of USA-Saudis to do this atrocity ? what is the point ?
What was the point of USA’s nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki where were no military targets but hundreds of thousands of civilians? When asked today many Americans say that it was humanitarian act that reduced war losses. Those who think like that do not deserve to be called human.
They (Saudi wahhabi rats with their US masters) hope to hurt so hard that Yemen surrender. They are in for a roode awakening.