ANAA, Yemen A small medical facility run by Doctors Without Borders in the

northern Yemeni province of Saada was destroyed by two airstrikes but there were
no casualties, the aid group's chief in Yemen said Tuesday.
The first strike came around 11 p.m. on Monday and hit a building housing the
facility's administration offices, according to Hassan Boucenine, who spoke to The
Associated Press by telephone from the southern port city of Aden.
No one was inside at the time, he said, adding that by the time a second strike
targeted the main nearby building about 10 minutes later, its occupants some 12
staff and patients had been evacuated.
"It's completely destroyed," Boucenine said. The group operates in eight Yemeni
governorates at a time when many foreign aid groups and even United Nations
personnel have been evacuated.
A Saudi-led, U.S.-backed coalition has been launching airstrikes against Yemen's
Shiite rebels, also known as Houthis, and their allies since March. Saada, the
Houthis stronghold, has faced a particularly intense bombardment.
The United Nations said the facility was the 39th health center hit since the violence
escalated in March, adding that critical shortages of fuel, medication, electricity and
water could mean many more will close. Amnesty International said the strike may
amount to a war crime and called for an independent investigation.
The strike was second attack this month on the international medical charity, which
is also known by its French acronym MSF.
On Oct. 3, U.S. gunships bombed an MSF hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz,
killing 30 people. The main building there was destroyed and the hospital has since
been shut down. U.S. forces in Afghanistan said the hospital was bombed by
mistake after Afghan forces requested an air strike, and President Barack Obama
apologized.
Yemen has been embroiled in fighting between the Houthis and allied army units
against forces loyal to the internationally recognized government as well as
southern separatists and other militants.
The conflict gained international attention when the Houthis took over the capital,
Sanaa, in September last year, and escalated in March when the coalition started
launching airstrikes against Houthi positions.
In Geneva, the office for the U.N. high commissioner for human rights said Tuesday
that some 2,615 civilians have been killed in Yemen violence over the last six

months. OHCHR spokesman Rupert Colville said about two-thirds of those deaths
were caused by air strikes, and the rest by Houthi rebels and their allies.
Meanwhile in the central city of Taiz, Yemen's third largest and besieged by Houthi
rebels, independent security officials and witnesses said that at least 11 people
were killed and 33 wounded overnight including women, children and the elderly
when rebel shelling hit residential areas.
MSF said Houthi forces are preventing their trucks carrying essential medical
supplies from entering Taiz.
___
Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.
___
This story has been corrected to show the death toll from the bombing of the MSF
hospital in Afghanistan is 30, not 23.

BEIRUT, Lebanon A health center in northernYemen run by Doctors Without

Borders was obliterated overnight in multiple bombings by warplanes belonging to
the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, forcing the evacuation of staff members
and patients, the group said on Tuesday.
With the hospital destroyed, at least 200,000 people now have no access to
lifesaving medical care, Doctors Without Borders said in astatement. Hassan
Boucenine, the groups head of mission in Yemen, said in the statement that the
attack was another illustration of a complete disregard for civilians in Yemen,
where bombings have become a daily routine.
The Saudi-led coalition, which is fighting Houthi rebels, has bombed several health
facilities during the seven-month war, but the airstrikes appeared to be the first
time coalition warplanes had directly struck a clinic run by Doctors Without Borders.
Continue reading the main story
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The group said the hospital was hit by several airstrikes starting at around 10:30
p.m. Monday. Doctors Without Borders is one of the few international organizations
operating extensively throughout Yemen.
About 12 patients and staff members were in the center at the time, and they were
able to evacuate in the lull between the two airstrikes. One patient received burns
and scratches, and another was in critical condition because of the hurried
evacuation, Mr. Boucenine said. One staff member was slightly injured.

Doctors Without Borders had supplied the health centers coordinates to the
coalition about six months ago and reconfirmed them every month, Mr. Boucenine
said.
The health center, in the Haydan district along the border with Saudi Arabia, was
one of the few medical facilities still operating in the northern province of Saada, a
Houthi stronghold that has been heavily bombed by the coalition.
This month, an American airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in
Afghanistan killed at least 23 people. The group has called for an international
inquiry into that attack under the Geneva Conventions.