School in Yemen hit by air strike

The conflict in Yemen pits the internationally-recognized government and the coalition against Shiite rebels known as Houthis.

On Sunday, hours after the negotiations ended, the coalition launched 30 air strikes throughout Yemen.

The coalition denied targeting a school, instead saying it bombed a camp at which rebels train underage soldiers.

The facility has been providing a range of services and medical aid for internally displaced people, along with emergency and maternal health care and surgery, the group said on its website.

The Yemen Post claimed one bomb was being dropped on the city every 10 minutes by the Saudi-led Arab coalition.

Just hours before the attack, Saudi jets targeted a civilian auto in the province of Ta’izz and killed two people, after their warplanes targeted a school and other locations in the northwestern province of Sa’ada, killing several civilians, many of them children.

The U.S. State Department is “deeply concerned” about the reported hospital strike and is conferring with Saudi officials about civilian casualties, said spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called for the Saudi absolute monarchy to be suspended from the U.N. Human Rights Council because of its “gross and systematic violations of human rights overseas and at home”.

Across the country, at least 14 million people, more than half the population, are in need of emergency food and life-saving assistance.

A spokesman for Ban said he condemned the attack and urged parties “to prevent further violations of worldwide humanitarian law and human rights and do everything in their power to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure”.

Harad itself is seeing fierce fighting and is frequently a target of heavy coalition air strikes.

The UN chief also called upon the parties to renew – without delay and in good faith – their engagement with his Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, in pursuit of a negotiated solution, the statement said.