As Corporate Media Looks the Other Way, US-Backed Saudi Bombing Campaign Kills Dozens in Yemen

As some of America's most prominent corporate media outlets continued their lengthy blackout of Yemen's deepening humanitarian crisis--a catastrophe made possible by the U.S. government's enthusiastic military and political support for Saudi Arabia's years-long assault on the starving nation--the Saudi-led coalition on Thursday reportedly killed more than 50 people and injured over 100 more in a massive bombing campaign targeting the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah.

"This crisis is a moral stain on all of us who are in a position of power and are failing."
--Rep. Ro Khanna Horrific images, videos, and witness accounts of the bombing quickly began circulating on social media after airstrikes pounded the vicinity of al-Thawra, Hodeidah's main public hospital.

"It is a very painful sight, parts of bodies are everywhere around the hospital gates," an eyewitness toldReuters, as Yemeni journalists and American activists intensified calls for the U.S. media to stop looking the other way while the Trump administration fuels the ongoing massacre of Yemenis with weaponry and intelligence.

Ahmad Algohbary, a Yemeni freelance journalist, offered a glimpse at the aftermath of the Saudi-led coalition's bombing campaign in an effort to "bring attention to the reality" of Yemen's situation, which has been described as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

Warning: The following images are disturbing.

Responding to Algohbary's photo of a Yemeni woman grasping her starving child, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)--one of the few members of Congress who has been consistent and outspoken in his opposition to America's central role in Saudi Arabia's assault on Yemen--wrote on Twitter: "As a father, this absolutely breaks my heart. The world must act."

"We must stop Saudi's bombing of Hodeidah. We must demand that the violence end," Khanna added. "This crisis is a moral stain on all of us who are in a position of power and are failing."

Increasingly, activists and independent journalists have been using their social media platforms to pressure corporate media outlets that are failing to adequately cover the crisis in Yemen, which dates back to 2014.

"While [it's] disgraceful that MSNBC hasn't been covering the world's most significant humanitarian crisis, the problem runs much deeper," writer Walker Bragman noted on Twitter. "Corporate media, for the sake of ratings, has sanitized the news, allowing Americans to live in ignorant bliss of U.S.-linked war crimes."

"Instead of providing healthcare to sick Americans or education, this is what your tax dollars are going towards," noted one Twitter user following the Saudi-led coalition's latest attack on Yemen. "Enough is enough."

The latest massacre of Yemeni civilians comes amid the Saudi-led coalition's effort to seize Hodeidah from Yemen's Houthi rebels.

As Common Dreams reported, international aid groups have warned that an attempt by the Saudi-led coalition to take control of the port city could imperil shipments of life-saving food and medicine to millions of Yemenis as they face widespread food shortages and a worsening cholera epidemic.

The advocacy group Save the Children warned that 3,000 Yemeni children are being displaced from Hodeidah each day as the Saudi-led coalition continues to bomb and attack the city.

Soon after the Saudi-led coalition began bombing Hodeidah on Thursday, Martin Griffiths, the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, told the U.N. Security Council that he plans to bring representatives of the Saudi-led coalition--which includes the United Arab Emirates--and the Houthi rebels together for peace talks in September.

If the talks take place, they will be the first Yemen peace negotiations in two years.