Monday’s Saudi-led coalition strike on Abs hospital in the rebel-held province of Hajja was the fourth and deadliest attack yet on an MSF facility in war-torn Yemen, according to the charity.
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Earlier in the day, residents in Nehm area, east of Sanaa, said a plane from the Saudi-led alliance struck the home of a local leader of Yemen’s armed Houthi group while he was out, killing his father and eight members of the family.
U.S. officials have regularly urged their major Middle East ally to avoid harming non-combatants there.
“I … had to consider the very real prospect that millions of other children would suffer grievously if, as was suggested to me, countries would defund many United Nations programs”, he said in defence of his decision to take the kingdom off the list. “What’s happening is we are helping to radicalize the the Yemeni population against the United States”, Murphy said. “[There is] the external [war] with Saudi Arabia, and also the internal one (s) between Yemenis”.
McConnaughey said that “if the need arises” the team directly assigned to coalition cooperation could be augmented.
Facing criticism of its bombing campaign and a budget crunch from low oil prices, Riyadh is keen to bring an end to the intervention it launched previous year against Shiite Huthi rebels and their allies, analysts say.
The US has pulled out its military personnel, who were coordinating support for the Arab coalition campaign against the Houthi rebels in Yemen conflict, from Saudi Arabia in June.
The New York Times has used its widely read editorial to slam American support for Saudi Arabia’s intervention in the civil war in Yemen, now the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe. “The kingdom, however, denies such allegations and argues that it uses ‘highly accurate” munitions, guided by Global Positioning System and laser, and verifies its targets many times to avoid casualties among the population.
Yet allegations of strikes on civilian facilities have continued.
“MSF is neither satisfied nor reassured by the Saudi-led coalition’s statement that this attack was a mistake”, said MSF’s Yemen branch in a series of tweets.
The MSF is evacuating its obstetricians, pediatricians, surgeons and emergency room specialists from six Saada and Hajjah hospitals in northern Yemen, the global medical aid group tweeted on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia has said the report is based on inaccurate information.
The Fifth Fleet spokesman said intelligence is still being provided to the Saudis who are the ultimate decision-makers.
Rebel attacks also intensified.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.Saturday’s airstrikes came just days after coalition warplanes hit a Yemen hospital near the Saudi border, killing at least 14 people, including volunteer physicians from the medical charity Doctors Without Borders.
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In a report released on May, the worldwide aid agency said at least 100 staff members, patients and caretakers had lost their lives and 130 others had sustained injures due to the Saudi aerial attacks on over 80 MSF-supported and run health structures in 2015 and early 2016.
