11 killed in airstrike on MSF hospital in Yemen

By Zekeriyya al-Kemali

SANAA (AA) – At least 11 people were killed and 19 others injured late Monday in Yemen in an airstrike that hit a hospital operated by the medical charity group Doctors Without Borders.

The group, also known as its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said on Twitter that warplanes struck a hospital in the Abs area of northern Hajjeh province and that the coordinates and map location of the facility were sent to Saudi-led coalition forces and other warring parties in Yemen in an attempt to prevent any possible attacks.

Pro-Houthi television channel Al-Massira reported that the airstrike was carried out by Saudi-led coalition forces.

The airstrikes Monday comes just two day after 10 children were killed in an airstrike on a school in Yemen’s stronghold of the Houthi group, according to MSF who said 28 children were also injured in the attack in the Haydan of Saada province.

The aid agency said the children ranged in ages from 8 - 15, but without specifying which group was behind the airstrike.

Saudi Arabian media said Saturday that a senior Houthi leader was killed in an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition in Saada.

Yemen fell into a civil war in late 2014 when the Houthis and allied forces of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh overran the capital of Sanaa and other provinces, forcing President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and his Saudi-backed government to temporarily flee to Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive military campaign in Yemen in March 2015, aimed at reversing Houthi gains and restoring Hadi’s embattled government.

Backed by Saudi-led airstrikes, pro-Hadi forces have since managed to reclaim large swathes of the country’s south -- including provisional capital Aden -- but have failed to retake Sanaa and other strategic areas.

UN-brokered peace talks between the Yemeni government and Houthis collapsed last week in Kuwait.