AT LEAST 10 children were injured when a school was hit by a Saudi air strike in southern Yemen on Sunday evening, the al-Masirah television network reported today.

Citing an unnamed security source, it said that the missile hit the Zaid al-Sharji school in Dali governorate after being fired from a drone.

A second strike reportedly targeted a petrol station next to the school, injuring a number of civilians.

The security source branded the attack a heinous crime and claimed it as proof that the Saudis are deliberately targeting civilians in Yemen.

Yemen’s Foreign Minister Hisham Sharaf said the intensification of the Saudi-led coalition’s bombing was a sign of Riyadh’s desperation.

“The bombardment and the repetition of what has happened since the beginning of the aggression is a manifestation of [Saudi Arabia’s] helplessness,” he said.

“The current escalation on several fronts comes as the Saudi coalition reached the conviction that it has failed to put pressure on Sana’a,” he said.

While Mr Sharaf said that Yemen was ready to respond to the Saudis’ continued escalations, he added that it was also ready for dialogue towards ending more than six years of war.

“We extend our hand for peace, but for a just peace,” he said. 

“Open the Sana’a airport and ports and those would be gestures of peace, but moving towards peace while bombing us and showing us muscle will not help.”

The Saudi-led coalition has sought to restore the government of president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi after he was ousted in 2015.

But victory appears to be slipping from the hands of the Saudi regime, whose tactics are becoming increasingly desperate.

Last week it carried out a number of attacks on densely populated civilian neighbourhoods in the capital Sana’a, insisting that its missiles were aimed at “legitimate military targets.”

Riyadh has been accused of war crimes during its six-year bombing campaign, having deliberately targeted schools, hospitals and infrastructure.

A UN report published last week predicted that the death toll will reach 377,000 by the end of the year, with 60 per cent of the predicted deaths coming from hunger and preventable disease.

Yemen now represents the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, but the Saudi-led war continues to be supported by Britain, France and the United States, including through lucrative arms contracts.