Saudi Arabia suffered its worst civilian death toll Tuesday, August 16, in cross-border shelling from Yemen as an anti-rebel coalition it leads launched an investigation into a deadly strike on a hospital, AFP reports.
A rocket fired by rebels in Yemen killed seven civilians in Najran city in the highest reported number of non-combatant casualties in the kingdom's south since the Arab coalition intervened in Yemen 17 months ago.
"It killed four citizens and three residents," the civil defense spokesman in Najran city said of the rocket strike, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
The attack came after the coalition launched an investigation Tuesday following international condemnation of an air raid on Monday that Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said killed 14 people at a hospital it supports.
Another 24 people were wounded in the strike that hit the hospital on Monday in Abs in the rebel-held northern province of Hajja, the Paris-based aid agency said, according to AFP.
An MSF staffer was among the dead, it said.
The coalition began its bombing campaign in March last year after Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels seized large parts of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.
It stepped up air strikes this month after UN-mediated peace talks between the rebels and Yemen's internationally backed government were suspended.
