RIYADH — The Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) has launched investigations into the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) claim that coalition airstrikes have hit a school and a hospital in Yemen causing casualties.
The JIAT's probe comes in response to UN Secretary General’s call to that effect.
“This investigation will be independent and will follow international standards. The JIAT will make the results of its investigation public,” a statement issued here late Monday said.
The Paris-based relief agency earlier in the day tweeted: MSF “confirms that Abs hospital (in Hajja province) was targeted by airstrikes today at 15:45 Yemen time (1245 GMT).
“Number of deaths and casualties still unknown.”
MSF spokeswoman Malak Shaher told AFP the agency has had a team at the public hospital in the coastal town since 2015.
“Medical teams still attending wounded” after the airstrikes, MSF tweeted.
Residents in Abs also claimed that coalition jets, which have been striking rebel military targets in the town for days, hit the hospital and caused casualties.
But a specific toll could not immediately be obtained.
The strikes come less than 48 hours after MSF accused the coalition of killing 10 children in airstrikes on a school in Saada, another rebel-held province in Yemen's north.
The coalition denied targeting the school, instead saying it bombed a camp at which Iran-backed rebels train underage soldiers.
The 14-member JIAT was set up as a standing investigation team following mounting criticism of the civilian death toll from the bombing campaign.
Earlier this month, it acknowledged “shortcomings” in two of eight cases it investigated of airstrikes on civilian targets in Yemen.
The coalition resumed airstrikes on Sanaa on Aug. 9, almost three days after negotiations in Kuwait were suspended, with one raid reported to have hit a food factory in the city during working hours, killing 14 people.
