British and US-made bombs killing civilians in Yemen

By ITV News Correspondent Neil Connery and ITV News Senior News Editor Paul Tyson

The airstrikes are precise; modern guided bombs from Britain and the US allow Saudi coalition pilots to hit any target they choose, anywhere in Yemen.

But these targets are all too often civilian.

As we have travelled around this country we have seen hospitals, schools, markets, houses and restaurants destroyed.

Yemen's already crumbling infrastructure has been targeted too; bridges, roads, factories, power plants, even water towers hit.

In Sada'a, home to the Houthi rebels whose seizure of power nineteen months ago sparked this war, the destruction is widespread and intense.

A United Nations report, leaked in January this year, said the whole town had been regarded as a target, in violation of international humanitarian law.

We visited a school that was hit one night three weeks ago. Most of the classrooms are destroyed. The schoolchildren continue to study amid the rubble.

They live next to the site and the trauma of the attack is never far away: "It was horrible. We were very scared and ran away," thirteen-year-old Mohammed Musfir said.

But the children are determined to hold on to the most precious thing they still have, their education: "I’m so upset. We really want to study but they destroyed our school," seven-year-old Yusuf Ahmed said.

The Saudi-led coalition says it does not deliberately target civilians and accuses Houthi fighters of hiding in population centres but this does not explain some of the 'targets' we have seen or the sheer scale of the destruction we've seen.

The hospital in Abs was struck by a bomb in August, killing 19 people, including five children.

Run by the charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) the hospital represented the only access to free healthcare for thousands of people.

The hospital was clearly marked, the coalition had the co-ordinates and were in regular contact with MSF.

It was the fourth MSF hospital to be hit by an airstrike in Yemen in less than twelve months.

Markets have been a frequent target. One attack in march killed 120 people including twenty children.

The market in Sada'a old town has stood for more than 400 years, it was destroyed in a matter of hours.

Saleh Al-Bakri, who lives there told us: "What happened here was an injustice, we are civilians. Nine people were killed in this street alone."