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Saudi destroys Yemeni hospital

by Gulistan Elidemir

AT LEAST seven people were killed in a hospital in Yemen yesterday when a missile exploded nearby as protests marked the fourth anniversary of the start of the country’s civil war.

The projectile hit a petrol station 50 yards from the entrance of the Save the Children-backed Kitaf rural hospital in Houthi-held north-western Yemen. Four children were among the dead and another eight people were wounded.

The perpetrators of the attack are currently unclear, although a Saudi-led coalition is known to be carrying out air strikes in support of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s exiled government.

Human rights groups have accused the coalition of repeatedly bombing markets, schools, hospitals and residential areas. However, the Saudi-led coalition denies that this is deliberate.

An international outcry followed the killing of 40 children in an air strike on their coach as it returned from a school trip in August.

Save the Children International chief executive Helle Thorning-Schmidt said that he was “shocked and appalled by [yesterday’s] outrageous attack” and demanded an urgent investigation.

“Innocent children and health workers have lost their lives in what appears to been an indiscriminate attack on a hospital in a densely populated civilian area. Attacks like these are a breach of international law,” she added.

Meanwhile, in the capital Sanaa people took to the streets in support of the Houthi movement, chanting slogans against Saudi Arabia, which leads the military coalition against the Houthis with British and US support.

Protesters also accused US ally Israel of helping to destroy the country, chanting: “America and Israel, death and mutilation to you” and “Five or 50 years, we will face the criminal coalition.”

The Houthis have remained in control of the capital Sanaa since 2014, when they drove out President Hadi’s government.

The United Nations has been pushing for talks between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government in the hope of finding a political solution to the conflict.

According to UN reports, at least 7,025 civilians have been killed and 11,140 injured in the fighting. Thousands more have died from preventable causes, including malnutrition, disease and poor health.

Over two million people have been displaced, driving the impoverished country to the verge of famine.

About 80 per cent of Yemen’s 24 million people need humanitarian aid and protection.

About 20 million need help securing food, including almost 10 million who, the UN warns, are just a step away from famine. Almost 240,000 of those people are facing “catastrophic levels of hunger.”

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