UN launches investigation after Mail on Sunday exposé reveals British Special Forces are fighting on same side as child soldiers in Yemen civil war
- Report sparked questions over Britain's complicity in support for Saudi Arabia
- Charities say Yemeni children of 13 are considered old enough to fight by elders
- Harrowing pictures of children with AK47s emerged from the war's front line
An exclusive report in The Mail on Sunday that British Special Forces have been wounded while fighting on the same side as child soldiers in Yemen has triggered a United Nations investigation.
Our devastating expose last week told how Special Boat Service commandos had been wounded during top-secret operations in the conflict that has left millions facing starvation.
The report sparked furious questions in the Commons over Britain’s complicity in its support for Saudi Arabia, which is allied to the Yemeni government fighting rebels backed by Iran in the four-year civil war.
An exclusive report in the Mail on Sunday that British Special forces have been wounded while fighting on the same side as child soldiers in Yemen has triggered a United Nations investigation. Above: taken on the front line in December, the first harrowing pictures of child soldiers, their faces etched with the horrors they have seen
Charities say Yemeni children of 13 are considered old enough to fight by elders.
The MoS report casts doubt over the veracity of the Government’s often-repeated claim that the UK ‘is not a party to the war’.
There have been repeated claims that Saudi-backed forces have committed war crimes in attacks on the Houthi rebels.
Just days ago, a hospital was hit by a suspected Saudi air strike on a gas station near a hospital, resulting in the death of at least seven people, including four children.
The Ministry of Defence has previously been forced to defend its support for Saudi Arabia after it emerged that RAF engineers are being used to repair Saudi combat aircraft and, as the MoS previously revealed, British infantry soldiers are training Saudi troops before they deploy to Yemen. The UK also has military liaison officers embedded in the kingdom’s military headquarters.
Following our article last week we received a request for information by the United Nations’ official panel of experts on Yemen which advises the UN’s security council on the state of the conflict.
We have agreed to pass on evidence about child soldiers provided by our sources to the UN.
We are also publishing for the first time today pictures understood to be of Yemeni child soldiers taken in late 2018.
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Last Tuesday, Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry asked a Foreign Office Minister whether British Forces are ‘providing support’ to local militia forces in Yemen who send children aged as young as 13 into battle.
Mark Field MP responded: ‘We still hold the firm view that we are not a party to the conflict.
‘Clearly we are supportive of Saudi Arabia which has been a long-standing ally. The Mail on Sunday makes some very serious allegations and I am keen we get to the bottom of them.’
MPs also submitted written questions to Ministers about the MoS story. Former Foreign Minister Andrew Mitchell, who has accused the UK Government of being ‘shamefully complicit’ in Saudi Arabia’s role in Yemen, asked: ‘What recent assessment has been made of the effectiveness of operations involving British Armed Forces in Yemen in the last six months?’ Defence Minister Mark Lancaster replied: ‘None’.
Another image obtained by The Mail on Sunday. A source last night told this newspaper the boys in the pictures seemed far older as they handled AK47 rifles and pistols. Their ages are unknown, with no formal records of birth in tribal areas
Officially, the Government does not comment on the whereabouts or actions of UK Special Forces, even in response to parliamentary questions.
But the MoS has confirmed that around ten to 15 SBS personnel are deployed inside Yemen.
The SBS force includes medics, interpreters and intelligence officers and their mission is to advise official Saudi and Yemeni government troops.
It is understood that while these commandos are not deployed in an offensive role they are permitted to return fire to protect themselves.
Yemen’s four-year civil war began in March 2015 when Iranian-backed Houthi gunmen forced the country’s president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of power and into exile.
Saudi Arabia and its allies including the United Arab Emirates, then began a hugely controversial bombing campaign which has seen hospitals and schools destroyed.
Did Saudis use a British service jet to bomb children's hospital?
Saudi Arabia was blamed last week for an air strike in which at least four children were killed in a hospital.
It is speculated the missile blast in Yemen may have had the unwitting involvement of RAF personnel, who service Saudi aircraft.
The strike on a gas station left a total of at least seven people dead in the nearby hospital, which is supported by the charity Save The Children.
Saudi Arabia was blamed last week for an air strike on in which at least four children were killed in a hospital. The strike on a gas station left at least seven people dead in the nearby hospital, which is supported by the charity Save The Children. By servicing the aircraft, it is speculated that RAF personnel may have had involvement
The atrocity was internationally condemned, with the State Department of the US – Saudi Arabia’s ally – calling for an investigation into the ‘awful’ incident.
The missile is presumed to have been air-launched but it is not known by which aircraft and no one has claimed responsibility.
The coalition of Saudi Arabia and its allies has been repeatedly accused by human rights groups of targeting civilians – claims the coalition denies. It was revealed earlier this year that RAF personnel are servicing Saudi warplanes.
The British forces staff are seconded to BAE systems, which sells arms to the kingdom’s regime. RAF personnel service Tornadoes used by the Saudi Air Force.
As many as 60,000 people have died in the fighting while three million Yemenis have been internally displaced and eight million Yemenis rely on international aid agencies for food.
Tomorrow evening a documentary by Channel 4 Dispatches on Yemen called ‘Britain’s Hidden War’ will challenge more of the UK’s claims about its support for the Saudi military campaign.
The programme includes an interview with a former US diplomatic advisor who spent more than a year at the Saudi military command centre in Riyadh.
Larry Lewis questions the role of US and UK military advisers and suggests they are removed from the decision making process.
He also claims Saudi pilots neglect to check ‘no strike lists’, intended to protect civilians, before dropping their bombs.
