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Doctors Without Borders hospital bombed in Yemen

By Andrew V. Pestano
Doctors Without Borders on Tuesday said that one of its health centers in northern Yemen was bombed overnight by the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia. One patient was burned and scratched and another was in critical condition because of the hasty evacuation. Photo courtesy of Médecins Sans Frontières
1 of 3 | Doctors Without Borders on Tuesday said that one of its health centers in northern Yemen was bombed overnight by the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia. One patient was burned and scratched and another was in critical condition because of the hasty evacuation. Photo courtesy of Médecins Sans Frontières

HAYDAN, Yemen, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Doctors Without Borders on Tuesday said one of its health centers in northern Yemen was bombed overnight by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

The group, known officially as Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF, said the health center in the Haydan district of Yemen's Saada province, bordering Saudi Arabia, was targeted with at least two airstrikes at about 11 p.m. Monday, The New York Times reported.

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About 12 patients and MSF staff members were inside the health center at the time of the strike and successfully evacuated between the two strikes. One patient was burned and scratched, and another was in critical condition because of the hasty evacuation.

MSF said it had supplied the health center's coordinates to the Saudi Arabian coalition, which has been fighting against insurgent Houthi rebels in Yemen for about seven months. The health center is one of few operating medical facilities in Saada.

The bombing incident in Yemen follows the U.S. bombing of an MSF medical facility in Afghanistan, where at least 30 patients and staff members died. MSF has called for the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission, created under the Geneva Conventions, to investigate.

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"It is unacceptable that the bombing of a hospital and the killing of staff and patients can be dismissed as collateral damage or brushed aside as a mistake," MSF International President Dr. Joanne Liu recently said at a press conference. "This was not just an attack on our hospital. It was an attack on the Geneva Conventions. This cannot be tolerated."

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