Daily Times

SANAA: An air strike by the Saudi-led coalition in northern Yemen on Tuesday resulted in the death of five people including two children, medical and military sources said.

A headmaster and two other staff members were among those killed in the air raid on the district of Nihm, which left 13 wounded. A medical source at a Kuwaiti Hospital in Sanaa confirmed the casualty toll.

A government military official stated that the school was hit by the missiles by mistake; accusing the Shiite Huthi rebels of keeping armored vehicles nearby. A news website run by the rebels claimed eight people had been killed and 15 were wounded.

Human rights groups have repeatedly denounced the coalition over the rising civilian death toll from the bombing campaign it launched in March 2015.

In August, an air strike on an Islamic school in the Saada province, a rebel stronghold in the far north, killed 10 children and wounded 28 other people. It prompted the UN to call for a swift investigation. However, a probe commissioned by the coalition claimed that the closest targets hit by warplanes were 10 kilometres away from the school.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on Washington, London and Paris to stop delivering bombs and other weapons to Saudi Arabia because of fears over civilian deaths.

More than 7,000 people have been killed in Yemen since the coalition launched its intervention. Many of those killed in air strikes were civilians.

America has scaled back its logistical and intelligence support for the coalition’s war due to concerns about targeting.