Saudi Arabia Bombs Second Yemeni Wedding in a Week – At Least 23 Dead

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Saudi Arabia, the recently crowned head of a UN human rights panel and close U.S. government ally, has now bombed two wedding parties in Yemen in just over a week. Yes, you read that right.

The New York Times reports:

SANA, Yemen — Airstrikes by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia hit a house south of the capital on Wednesday, killing at least 23 people who were attending a wedding party, said witnesses and a local medical worker.

The attack was the second airstrike on a wedding in Yemen in a little over a week, and it added to growing criticism over the coalition’s air campaign, which has killed more than 1,100 civilians over the past six months, according to the United Nations.

On Sept. 28, coalition warplanes bombed wedding tents on the Yemen’s Red Sea coast, killing at least 70 people.

Saudi Arabia launched a military offensive in March against rebels known as the Houthis after they drove the Saudi-backed government from power. As war has spread throughout the country, more than 2,355 civilians have been killed — the majority of them in coalition airstrikes, human rights workers say.

Interestingly, this indiscriminate murdering of civilians is finally starting to get some attention in Washington D.C. We learn from Al-Monitor that:

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Saudi Arabia Forces the UN to Drop Humanitarian Inquiry Into Yemen Atrocities

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The following would be funny, if it weren’t so incredibly sad. The United Nations’ spiral into clownish insignificance continues unabated.

From the New York Times:

GENEVA — In a U-turn at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Western governments dropped plans Wednesday for an international inquiry into human rights violations by all parties in the war in Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians in the last six months.

The change of direction came as the Netherlands withdrew the draft of a resolution it had prepared with support from a group of mainly Western countries that instructed the United Nations high commissioner for human rights to send experts to Yemen to investigate the conduct of the war.

That proposal was a follow-up to recommendations by the commissioner, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, who detailed in a report this month the heavy civilian loss of life inflicted not only by the relentless airstrikes of the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia but also by the indiscriminate shelling carried out by Houthi rebels.

But in the face of stiff resistance from Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners, and to the dismay of human rights groups, Western governments have accepted a resolution based on a Saudi text that lacks any reference to an independent, international inquiry.

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Saudi Arabia Prepares to Execute Teenager via “Crucifixion” for Political Dissent

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Just last evening, I posted an article about how the UN disgracefully named Saudi Arabia to head its human rights panel.

So how do the Saudis plan on celebrating this achievement? By executing a teenager via crucifixion, naturally.

I covered this story back in May in the piece, Not ISIS – Saudi Arabia Prepares to Execute and Publicly Display Beheaded Body of Political Activist in “Crucifixion.” Here are a few excerpts:

The Saudis have received a lot of bad press as of late due to it consistently breaking its own records for beheadings, but sometimes a simple beheading isn’t sufficient. In a punishment known as “crucifixion,” the executed person’s beheaded body is placed on public display for three days. Currently facing this fate are three political activists, including two children. We learn from Reprieve.org that:

Sheikh Nimr Baqir Al Nimr, a 53-year old critic of the Saudi regime, and two juveniles, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr and Dawoud Hussain al-Marhoon, were arrested during a 2012 crackdown on anti-government protests in the Shiite province of Qatif. After a trial marred by irregularities, Mr Al Nimr was sentenced to death by crucifixion on charges including ‘insulting the King’ and delivering religious sermons that ‘disrupt national unity’. This week, it emerged that the authorities plan to execute him on Thursday, despite protests from the UN and Saudi human rights organizations.

The planned execution of Mr Al Nimr has prompted fears for the safety of the two juveniles, who were both 17 when they were arrested and eventually sentenced to death on similar charges. Both teenagers were tortured and denied access to lawyers, and faced trials that failed to meet international standards. All three prisoners, including Mr Al Nimr, have not yet exhausted their legal appeals.

Now here’s the latest. From Mic:

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Need a Job? Saudi Arabia is Looking for Eight Swordsmen to Keep up with Record Beheadings

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Looking for work and want to help out one of the U.S. government’s closest global allies at the same time? Well today might be your lucky day.

All you have to do is be willing to sever the heads of human beings accused of committing victimless crimes. No qualifications are necessary.

From the AFP:

Riyadh (AFP) – Saudi Arabia advertised vacancies for eight executioners Tuesday after beheading nearly as many people since the start of the year as it did in the whole of 2014.

The civil service ministry said that no qualifications were necessary and that applicants would be exempted from the usual entrance exams.

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