Yemen's Houthi rebels condemn coalition attack on MSF hospital

Tamim al-Shami, spokesman for the Houthi-controlled Health Ministry, said the attack on the hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders [MSF] in the northern town of Abs was one of many attacks on civilians carried out by Saudi "aggressors."

A rebel council in Sanaa also condemned the hospital strike and called on the United Nations to form an "independent committee to investigate" coalition "crimes".

MSF said on Tuesday that the death toll from the strike had risen to from 11 to 14 people.

"Late last night, three of the five patients hospitalised after yesterday’s airstrike that hit a hospital supported by MSF in northwestern Yemen, died," the Paris-based aid agency said in a statement.

"At the time of the airstrike the hospital was full of patients recovering from surgery, in maternity, newborns, and children in paediatrics,"

It added that this was the fourth attack against an MSF-supported facility in Yemen in the last year.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting rebels in Yemen has said it has launched an "independent" investigation into "reports" of an airstrike on a hospital in Yemen.

The attack, which was condemned by key Saudi ally Washington, came less than 48 hours after air raids on an Islamic school in neighbouring rebel-held province Saada killed 10 children.

Yemen's conflict pits an internationally-recognised government backed by the Saudi-led coalition against the Shia rebels, who captured the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014. The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes in Yemen since March 2015.

Rights groups and UN agencies say over 9,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

Fighting has picked up across the country after peace talks in Kuwait collapsed earlier this month.