The statement which was issued in cooperation with 13 International organizations stated that 147 children are inflicted with disabilities due to indiscriminate shelling on densely populated areas by the Houthis, landmines and Houthi-affiliated snipers.

The rights group accused Iran-backed militias of detaining 456 children in the Houthi-run prisons, while displacing 43,608 children and forcefully recruiting 12,341 children for militant activities.

Social Affairs Minister Dr. Ibtihaj al-Kamal also called on international organizations dealing with children’s welfare to back the Yemeni government in adopting plans that support children and rehabilitate them.

Kamal said in a statement that “4.5 million Yemeni children have been deprived of education since the Houthi militias led a coup late 2014.”

She accused the insurgents of shelling schools and turning them into military barracks, sending children to battlefronts and adopting curricula that encourage hatred and threaten the social fabric.

The rights group appealed the international community to take stringent actions against the Iran-backed militias to end their crimes, atrocities and violations against the Yemeni children.

The Houthi militias claimed on Sunday that they captured thousands of Saudi forces and their armored vehicles during a massive operation on the Saudi-Yemen border. They further announced to parade the Prisoners of War (POWs). However, no independent body verified the claims.

The supposedly captured Saudi soldiers were shown in the footage wearing Lungi and flip-flops walking on a rugged terrain, which initially created dubiousness of the Houthi-claim.

Arab Coalition spokesperson Colonel Turki al-Maliki in a press conference in Riyadh on Monday said that, “Unfortunately, there are regional and international media that are carrying such news. It is definitely fabricated. They (Houthis) are making up events and trying to influence the popular opinion in Yemen, the region, and the world,” Al-Arabiya News reported.

“It’s not appropriate for the coalition’s media to respond to every single false claim that the militia put out,” he added.

A Turkey-based researcher Khalil Dewan tweeted on Sunday that “Open source pictures clearly do not show “thousands” of POWs…Nor can this be verified,” hinting that Houthis have lied in the past and their claims cannot be verified.

Open source pictures clearly do not show “thousands” of POWs. #Houthis #SaudiArabia #Yemen

Nor can this be verified.

Video to follow pic.twitter.com/04ekZAloTs

— Khalil Dewan (@KhalilDewan) September 29, 2019

In the recent attack on the Saudi oil installations on September 14, Houthis released a video within hours claiming the attacks.

Initial investigations revealed that the attacks were made by Iran, and the Houthis took the responsibility to purposefully divert the attention.