11 killed at hospital in coalition strike

Military forces led by Saudi Arabia blamed for the attack and now said to be investigating

Once again, today we witness the tragic consequences of the bombing of a hospital ... full of patients.”

Teresa Sancristoval, emergency program manager for Doctors Without Borders

An airstrike hit a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders in northern Yemen on Monday, the international humanitarian group said, killing at least 11 people and wounding at least 19 others.

The group, known by the French acronym MSF, said the strike hit the hospital near the Houthi rebel stronghold of Saada, where teams were still attending to the wounded.

The airstrike on Abs Hospital, in Yemen’s Hajjah governorate, occurred around 3:45 pm on Monday, MSF said in a news release. The aid group said nine people, including an MSF staff member, were killed immediately. Two more patients died while being transferred to another hospital, and five patients remain hospitalized.

MSF said the hospital, which the group had been supporting since July 2015, was destroyed, and all the remaining patients and staff have been evacuated.

The conflict in Yemen pits an internationally-recognized government backed by a Saudi-led coalition against the Shiite Houthi rebels, who captured the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014. The Saudiled coalition has been carrying out airstrikes in Yemen since March 2015.

MSF said the hospital’s GPS coordinates had been shared with all sides to the conflict, including the Saudi-led coalition.

Teresa Sancristoval, MSF emergency program manager for Yemen, said it was the fourth attack on an MSF-supported medical facility in Yemen in the past 12 months.

“Once again, today we witness the tragic consequences of the bombing of a hospital. 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,” Sancristoval said in the news release.

MSF called on all parties, particularly the Saudi-led coalition which it blamed for the hospital attack, to guarantee that such attacks do not happen again.

In response to an Associated Press request for comment, the Saudi-led coalition said its Joint Incidents Assessment Team “is aware of reports of an airstrike on a hospital in Yemen’s northern Hajjah province.”

The coalition assessment team has opened an investigation into these reports as a matter of urgency and is seeking additional information, in particular from Medecins Sans Frontieres, the statement said. The coalition added that it will make its findings from the investigation public.