The Saudi-led coalition bombing rebels in Yemen launched an investigation today after worldwide condemnation of an air raid that Doctors Without Borders said killed 11 people at a hospital it supports.
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“The circumstances of this attack must be thoroughly and independently investigated”, said Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme.
The coalition of Arab states has been battling the Huthi rebels since March 2015 after the insurgents seized the capital Sanaa before expanding to other parts of the country.
Saudi Arabia’s foes during more than a year of war, the Houthis are Yemen’s dominant political force and are fighting against Saudi-backed loyalists of the country’s exiled government in the Nehm district, where the strike occurred.
The World Health Organization reports 73 patients were in the hospital at the time of the bombing.They included 23 patients in surgery, 25 in the maternity ward, as well as 13 newborns and 12 patients in the pediatric ward.
MSF said more than 4600 patients had been treated at the Abs hospital since MSF began supporting it in July 2015.
Masirah said, however, that medical staff, including doctors and nurses, as well as children were among those killed.
The U.S. State Department is “deeply concerned” about the reported hospital strike and is conferring with Saudi officials about civilian casualties, said spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau.
“Once again, a fully functional hospital full of patients and MSF national and worldwide staff members, was bombed in a war that has shown no for respect medical facilities or patients”.
“Medical teams have not yet been able to enter the hospital”, he said in a statement carried by the rebel sabanews.net website, adding that coalition warplanes were still flying over the area.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack on Monday and called for a swift investigation.
Saudi Arabia said the school it targeted was a “training camp” for child soldiers, suggesting it was not the coalition’s responsibility that children were killed.
The rebels formed the 10-member council late last month, in a move that put an end to the three months of peace talks in Kuwait.
The Houthis have also been accused of attacking such civilian facilities.
A auto bombing killed three soldiers in the southern province of Abyan on Monday, a security official said, after government forces launched an offensive this weekend to recapture the province from Al-Qaeda jihadists.
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The victims were aged between aged between eight and 15 years, the group said.
