WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has “certified” that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are working to reduce risks to civilian life in Yemen — a key step to ensuring continued US support to the coalition.

Pompeo’s assessment, announced Wednesday, came even as he admitted that the US believes civilian death rates at the hands of the coalition are “far too high.”

Under new rules, Congress requires the certification to continue allowing US air tankers to refuel Saudi and UAE warplanes.

The measure comes amid a string of high-profile coalition strikes that have killed scores of civilians, many of them children.

In a statement, Pompeo noted that both Saudi Arabia and UAE “are undertaking demonstrable actions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure resulting from military operations of these governments.”

On September 1, the coalition admitted that “mistakes” had been made in an August air strike that killed 40 children.

The bombing on a crowded market in part of northern Yemen held by Huthi rebels killed a total of 51 people, according to the Red Cross.

In an unclassified report, obtained by AFP, that accompanied Pompeo’s certification, he acknowledged that the US “recognizes that civilian casualties have occurred at rates that are far too high in the Saudi-led coalition’s campaign in Yemen.”

The Yemen conflict has triggered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with the UN estimating that as many as 10,000 people have died, most of them civilians, since the coalition launched military operations in 2015.

Twin strikes south of the rebel-held Red Sea port of Hodeida on August 23 killed 26 children, the United Nations has said.

The United States has drawn sharp criticism for its ongoing support to the coalition, which also includes intelligence sharing and targeting information.

In the report, Pompeo said civilian casualties must be reduced “for both strategic and moral reasons.”

The document points to multiple ways the coalition is trying to do this, including by avoiding hitting civilian infrastructure, keeping a “no-strike” list, and by updating rules of engagement.—AFP