HUMAN rights campaigners marched on Downing Street yesterday in protest against Britain’s continued arms sales to Saudi Arabia that may have already been used to commit war crimes.

Activists from Amnesty International dressed in white boiler suits and carrying five giant dummy missiles drew attention to the government’s refusal to halt exports of British arms to the Saudi regime.

Since Yemen’s civil war erupted a year ago, thousands of civilians have been killed and injured, many in devastating air strikes conducted by a Saudi-led military coalition.

Britain is a major supplier of weaponry to the Royal Saudi Air Force, issuing licences for arms exports valued at £2.8 billion between April and September last year.

Amnesty International said it had documented at least 30 unlawful air strikes, including strikes that deliberately targeted civilian objects.

Amnesty UK director Kate Allen said: “It looks like our missiles will be needed in the UK’s rush to restock Saudi Arabia’s supply of weaponry for its bombardment of Yemen.

“It’s absolutely shocking that the UK is still selling billions of pounds worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia even as the civilian casualties have mounted and mounted in Yemen.

“Ministers need to stop burying their heads in the sand and immediately suspend arms sales for the Saudi war machine.”

A United Nations report leaked last month also cited evidence of “widespread and systematic” attacks by Saudi forces on Yemeni civilian targets including weddings, schools, mosques and factories.

And in December a group of leading experts on international law issued a comprehensive legal opinion showing that continued weapons exports to Saudi Arabia breached Britain’s own laws and international laws.

Now the government’s arms sales are set to be investigated by MPs and challenged in court.

Ministers have repeatedly claimed that there is “no evidence of deliberate breaches of international humanitarian law” by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

Writing in the Star today, shadow international development secretary Diane Abbott accused them of trying to “defend the indefensible.”

The Saudi intervention in Yemen’s civil war must prompt us to ask ourselves searching questions about our arms industry,” she said.

“When Saudi Arabia or Bahrain buy our arms, they also buy our silence on their human rights abuses. We must now have the moral courage to end this silence.”