The Saudi-led coalition bombing rebels in Yemen launched an investigation yesterday following international condemnation of an airstrike that Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said killed 11 people at a hospital it supports.
More than 19 people were also wounded in the raid that hit the hospital in Abs, in the rebel-held northern province of Hajja, the Paris-based aid agency said, adding that one of its staff was among the dead.
The hospital strike was the latest in a series of reported coalition raids hitting civilian facilities — including at a school on Saturday that killed 10 children.
The coalition launched the bombing campaign in March last year. It stepped up the airstrikes earlier this month after peace talks between the rebels and Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi’s internationally backed government were suspended.
MSF said the 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,” Teresa Sancristoval, of MSF’s emergency unit in Yemen, said in a statement.
MSF said that the GPS coordinates of the hospital “were repeatedly shared with all parties to the conflict, including the Saudi-led coalition, and its location was well-known.”
The US has raised concerns about the reports, with US Department of State spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau saying: “Strikes on humanitarian facilities, including hospitals, are particularly concerning.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon went further, condemning the reported strike and saying 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 in a statement.
Amnesty International described the bombardment as “deplorable,” saying it “appears to be the latest in a string of unlawful attacks targeting hospitals, highlighting an alarming pattern of disregard for civilian life.”
A Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT), formed from members of the coalition dominated by Riyadh and its Gulf Sunni Arab allies, said it was aware of the reports and “has urgently launched an independent investigation.”
The JIAT will “obtain more information from MSF and will publicly announce the findings” of the probe, it said.
The 14-member JIAT was set up as a standing investigation team following mounting criticism of the civilian death toll from the bombing campaign.
It earlier this month acknowledged “shortcomings” in two of eight cases it investigated of airstrikes on civilian targets in Yemen.
It said the coalition had “mistakenly” hit a residential compound and an MSF-run hospital, but accused the rebels of having used the hospital as a hideout.
The team is also investigating Saturday’s strikes on the school in the rebels’ northern stronghold of Sa’ada.
The coalition denied it had targeted the school, saying it bombed a training camp and that the rebels were using child soldiers.
A recently formed rebel council governing from Sana’a called on the UN to form an “independent committee to investigate” the coalition “crimes.”
The so-called Supreme Political Council condemned the hospital strike in a statement on the rebels’ sabanews.net Web site, blaming the international community whose “silence has encouraged the coalition ... to commit further massacres.”
A UN envoy has described the ruling body as a violation of commitments to the peace process.
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