A spokesman for the coalition told the French news agency Sunday that the strikes hit a Houthi training camp, and that Yemen’s government had confirmed there was no school in the area.
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“The aircraft has bombed a training camp for the coup militias … in Saada”, he said, referring to the army-backed Houthis. “Why would children be at a training camp?”
Over 14 million Yemenis are in need of food aid as a result of the conflict, which began in March 2015 after the Shiite rebels and allied military units seized Sanaa and large swathes of central and northern Yemen, forcing the government of President Abd Rabbuh Hadi to flee the capital.
Assiri said that MSF’s toll only “confirms the Houthis practice of recruiting and subjecting children to terror”.
The officials spoke anonymously because they aren’t authorized to brief reporters.
“When jets target training camps, they can not distinguish between ages”, he added.
MSF spokeswoman Malak Shaher said those killed in the strikes on “a Koranic school” were all under 15.
Since the Yemen Civil War began in March 2015, the USA has sold more than $20 million in weapons to Saudi Arabia, according to the Intercept.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also issued a statement on the killing of children in a religious school that also injured 21 others.
Assiri sent to AFP pictures of Huthi children carrying rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
Ten children died and 28 others were injured in the attack on a private school in the Haydan district of Saada province, which occurred when children were leaving the school and were on their way home.
After a three-month pause, it resumed them on Tuesday, less than 72 hours after United Nations envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed announced the collapse of peace talks. The blast immediately killed nine people, including an MSF staff member.
Moreover, American and British military officials are physically in the command room with the Saudi military, and have access to a list of targets.
The UN had voiced concern about the increased fighting over the past week, warning that more than 80 percent of Yemenis need aid.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called for the Saudi absolute monarchy to be suspended from the U.N. Human Rights Council because of its “gross and systematic violations of human rights overseas and at home”.
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The strike, which news outlets say was conducted by Saudi-led coalition forces, partially destroyed Abs Hospital, a facility in Hajja province, which MSF has run since July 2015.
