Saudi-led coalition air strikes hit a hospital in a rebel-held province of northwest Yemen on Monday killing at least six people, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and a rebel official said.
MSF “confirms that Abs hospital (in Hajja province) was targeted by air strikes today at 15:45 Yemen time”, the Paris-based relief agency tweeted.
MSF spokeswoman Malak Shaher confirmed the incident and told AFP the agency has had a team at the public hospital in the coastal town since 2015.
Ayman Mazkour, who heads the health sector in Hajja province, said six people were killed and 20 wounded in the strikes, warning that the toll could rise.
“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.
Residents in Abs also said that coalition jets, which have been striking rebel military targets in the town for days, hit the hospital and caused casualties.
The strikes come less than 48 hours after MSF accused the coalition of killing 10 children in air strikes on a Koranic school in Saada, another rebel-held province in Yemen’s north.
{{/usCountry}}The strikes come less than 48 hours after MSF accused the coalition of killing 10 children in air strikes on a Koranic school in Saada, another rebel-held province in Yemen’s north.
{{/usCountry}}The coalition denied targeting a school, instead saying it bombed a camp at which Iran-backed rebels train underage soldiers.
The Arab coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, began its campaign of air strikes against Iran-backed Huthi rebels and their allies on March 26, 2015.
Abs is adjacent to the town of Harad, on the border with Saudi Arabia, and from where rebels have repeatedly shelled areas on the kingdom’s side of the frontier, causing both civilian and military deaths.
Harad itself is seeing fierce fighting and is frequently a target of heavy coalition air strikes.
Pro-government military sources, who are fighting alongside coalition forces in Harad, told AFP that military vehicles took rebel casualties to Abs hospital before Monday’s air strikes on the facility.