Coalition strikes kill at least 19

SANAA, Yemen — Airstrikes carried out by warplanes from a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia killed at least 19 people, mostly children, on Saturday in a residential area and a school in northern Yemen, witnesses and hospital officials said.

One bombardment in the village of Birken in the Razih district, near Yemen’s northern border with Saudi Arabia, struck the home of Ali Okri, a school principal, killing his wife and four of their children.

Then, in what has become known in the war here as a double tap, a second airstrike killed four more of Okri’s relatives as rescuers were searching for them under the rubble.

In the Haydan district, another northern border area, airstrikes on Saturday hit a school, killing 10 students who were taking examinations and wounding 28 others, said an official at a nearby hospital.

When rescuers took the victims from the principal’s house to Shiara Hospital, which is supported by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, staff members asked the rescuers to leave immediately, fearing the hospital would be hit by another airstrike, rescuers said.

Several Doctors Without Borders hospitals have been hit by Saudi-led coalition airstrikes since the conflict began early in 2015. Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen after Houthi militants ousted the country’s president. The Saudis accuse the Houthis of working on behalf of their archrival, Iran.

Maj. Gen. Ahmed Asseri, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said it was a common practice for the Houthi militants who dominate much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa, to station their fighters in schools and hospitals. But he said he had no specific comment on the airstrikes Saturday.

“We all know that these criminal organizations and groups are under pressure of the government,” Asseri said. “So they keep lying and saying that hospitals and schools are hit because they know the sensitivities of the international community.”