The United States said Wednesday that a UN report on possible war crimes in Yemen is "very concerning," calling on parties to the conflict to avoid violations.
"We've seen that report from the Human Rights Council," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters, saying that possible violations of international law "as outlined in that report are very concerning to the US government."
"We believe that if such crimes have taken place that there is simply no justification," she said, calling on parties to the conflict to "take necessary measures to prevent such violations."
On Tuesday, UN investigators said that all sides in Yemen's bloody conflict may have committed war crimes, highlighting deadly air strikes, rampant sexual violence and the recruitment of young children as soldiers.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Tuesday strongly defended the US-backed Saudi-led coalition that is fighting against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The coalition, whose air campaign has taken a heavy toll on civilians in the country, has rejected "inaccuracies" in the UN report and criticised its "non-neutrality."
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But Mattis added that US support was "not unconditional," the conditions being that the coalition does "everything humanly possible to avoid any innocent loss of life, and they support the UN-brokered peace process."
Earlier this month, local journalists reported the bomb that killed 40 children and 11 others in a Saudi-led coalition airstrike on a school bus was sold by the United States under a State Department deal with Riyadh.
The UN's Group of Independent Eminent International and Regional Experts, created by the UN Human Rights Council last September, detailed a long line of abuses committed by all parties to the conflict.
"There is little evidence of any attempt by parties to the conflict to minimise civilian casualties," said the group's chairman Kamel Jendoubi in a statement.
The report concluded that "coalition airstrikes have caused most of the documented civilian casualties," pointing to a large number of strikes on residential areas, markets, funerals, weddings, detention facilities, civilian boats and medical facilities.
"The specific cases investigated by the Group of Experts raise serious concerns about the targeting process applied by the coalition," the report said, pointing out that in many cases there were no apparent military targets in the vicinity of the attacks.
The devastating conflict in Yemen has left more than 10,000 people dead since March 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition intervened to fight Houthi rebels closing in on the last bastion of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government.
The conflict in what was already one of the world's poorest countries has caused what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
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