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Six women killed in coalition airstrikes in Yemen

In June, Saudi Arabia reacted angrily to a decision to blacklist the coalition after a United Nations report found the alliance responsible for 60 percent of the 785 deaths of children in Yemen previous year.

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MSF said that airstrikes continue endangering its facilities despite the fact it has “systematically shared the Global Positioning System coordinates of hospitals in which the organization works with the parties involved in the conflict”.

Amid news that ten children were killed by the us -supported airstrike over the weekend, Common Dreams reported how some congressional Democrats, led by Sen.

The attack on Abs Hospital was the fourth against MSF-run hospitals in northern Yemen.

A picture taken on August 16, 2016 shows a view of a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Abs, in the rebel-held northern province of Hajja, a day after the hospital was hit by an air strike.

MSF is one of handful of worldwide medical aid groups operating on the ground in Yemen where a 16-month civil war between a coalition and a militia has killed more than 6,500 people and brought the country close to starvation.

The coalition, which has repeatedly said that it is upholding worldwide humanitarian law and not deliberately targeting civilians, has also set up an independent team to investigate the incidents with civilian casualties.

The Saudi-directed Arab coalition established the air raids a year ago, afterwards sending in ground forces, to support the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

Paris-based Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has accused the coalition of “indiscriminate bombings” and said it had lost confidence in the alliance’s ability to prevent fatal attacks on its premises.

On Saturday, an air attack hit what MSF described as a school in neighbouring Saada province, killing 10 children.

MSF said it “deeply regrets the consequences of this evacuation” and “hopes the security situation will improve so that the population will have some respite, and MSF teams will be able to return to providing much-needed medical care”. Saudis insisted they were hitting “a major training camp for the militia” and that the attack killed a Houthi rebel leader.

Coalition warplanes are also supporting pro-government forces against Al-Qaeda jihadists who have exploited Yemen’s power vacuum to expand their presence in the country’s south and southeast.

Yemen’s war pits troops and militiamen loyal to the government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, against the Shiite rebels and Saleh loyalists.

Thousands of civilians have been killed in the violence. A body that the coalition set up to look into civilian casualties is investigating the MSF incident, among others.

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“Even as we assist the Saudis regarding their territorial integrity, it does not mean that we will refrain from expressing our concern about the war in Yemen and how it has been waged”, he added. “In our discussions with the Saudi-led coalition, we have pressed the need to minimize civilian casualties”.

1st aftermath images from Abs hospital. GPS coordinates were repeatedly shared w all parties to the conflict #Yemen