Rights groups call for UN inquiry into abuses in Yemen war

Nearly 60 rights groups are urging the United Nations to establish an international body to investigate abuses they say may amount to war crimes committed by all parties of Yemen's civil war.

Human Right Watch in a statement Tuesday said the call to investigate possible war crimes was in a letter sent by 57 groups to members of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

John Fisher, HRW's Geneva director, says the proposed body should "begin chipping away at the impunity that has been a central facet of Yemen's war."

In the more than two years since the war in Yemen began, more than 10,000 civilians have been killed and about 3 million displaced. The war pits Yemen's internationally recognized government and a Saudi-led coalition against Iranian-backed Shiite rebels and their allies.