The Saudi-led coalition bombing rebels in Yemen launched an investigation today after international condemnation of an air raid that Doctors Without Borders said killed 11 people at a hospital it supports.
More than 19 people were also wounded in the strike that hit the hospital yesterday in Abs in the rebel-held northern province of Hajja, the Paris-based aid agency said.
A Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staffer was among the dead, it said.
The hospital strike was the latest in a series of coalition raids that allegedly hit civilian facilities -- including a school on Saturday where 10 children were killed.
The coalition began the bombing campaign in March last year after Shiite Huthi rebels seized large parts of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.
It increased air strikes this month after UN-mediated peace talks between the rebels and Yemen's internationally backed government were suspended.
The coalition's spokesman Tuesday accused the Huthis of using the three months of negotiations to rearm.
"They were deceiving people by this negotiation, to re-organise their force, re-supplying their forces and getting back to fighting," Brigadier General Ahmed Assiri said.
MSF said yesterday's attack was the fourth on one of its facilities in less than a year.
"Once again, a fully functional hospital full of patients and MSF national and international staff members, was bombed in a war that has shown no respect for medical facilities or patients," said Teresa Sancristoval of MSF's emergency unit in Yemen.
MSF said the hospital's GPS coordinates "were repeatedly shared with all parties to the conflict, including the Saudi-led coalition, and its location was well-known".
Key Saudi ally Washington expressed concern, with a State Department spokeswoman saying: "Strikes on humanitarian facilities, including hospitals, are particularly concerning."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply disturbed" by the intensification of air raids in Yemen.
"Hospitals and medical personnel are explicitly protected under international humanitarian law and any attack directed against them, or against any civilian persons or infrastructure, is a serious violation of international humanitarian law," Ban said.
Amnesty International said the bombardment "appears to be the latest in a string of unlawful attacks targeting hospitals, highlighting an alarming pattern of disregard for civilian life".
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