Image copyright Save the Children Image caption Save the Children International's chief executive said the attack breached international law

A charity has condemned an air strike near a hospital in rebel-held north-western Yemen that killed at least eight people, five of them children.

A missile hit a petrol station 50m (164ft) from the entrance of the Kitaf rural hospital on Tuesday morning, according to Save the Children.

The blast also injured eight people.

It was not clear who was behind the attack, but a Saudi-led coalition is carrying out air strikes in support of the government in Yemen's civil war.

The coalition insists it never deliberately targets civilians, but human rights groups have accused it of bombing markets, schools, hospitals and residential areas.

Tuesday was the fourth anniversary of the escalation of the civil war, which has killed thousands and pushed millions to the brink of starvation.

What happened in Kitaf?

Save the Children says the petrol station in the area, which is 60km (40 miles) from the city of Saada, was struck by a missile at about 09:30 (06:30 GMT) on Tuesday, as many people were arriving at the nearby hospital.

An eight-year-old boy was the youngest person killed. Another boy aged 10, two boys aged 12, and one boy aged 14 also lost their lives.

Image copyright Save the Children Image caption The rebel Houthi movement blamed the Saudi-led coalition for the attack

One injured health worker, who was in the emergency room treating two young children when the strike happened, said: "All people were screaming and running out of the hospital. The structure of the hospital was totally damaged inside. Our colleague lost two children. They were burned.

"I got injured in my head and I was bleeding. I ran away from the hospital with my colleague to a safe place but we found nothing that could help me stop the bleeding. It was the most difficult moment of my life."

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the chief executive of Save the Children International, said she was "shocked and appalled by this outrageous attack" on a medical facility that the charity supported, and she demanded an urgent investigation.

"Innocent children and health workers have lost their lives in what appears to been an indiscriminate attack on a hospital in a densely populated civilian area. Attacks like these are a breach of international law," she added.

This hospital was "de-conflicted", which means all the warring parties were made aware of its location and were obliged to avoid it by a radius of 100m.

Residents and the rebel Houthi movement blamed the Saudi-led coalition for the attack, and Save the Children noted that the only warring party with access to planes that can carry out air strikes is the coalition.

The rebel-run health ministry condemned the "coalition's continued disregard for Yemeni lives" and said it had committed four war crimes in targeting the hospital.

There was no immediate comment from coalition officials.

Save the Children reported on Monday that at least 226 Yemeni children had been killed and 217 more injured in air raids carried out by the Saudi-led coalition in the past year.

Why is there a war in Yemen?

Yemen has been devastated by a conflict that escalated in March 2015, when the Houthis seized control of much of the west of the country and forced President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to flee abroad.

Alarmed by the rise of a group they saw as an Iranian proxy, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and seven other Arab states intervened in an attempt to restore the government.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The hidden victims of the Yemen war

The UN says at least 7,025 civilians have been killed and 11,140 injured in the fighting. Thousands more civilians have died from preventable causes, including malnutrition, disease and poor health.

About 80% of the population - 24 million people - need humanitarian assistance and protection.

About 20 million need help securing food, including almost 10 million who the UN says are just a step away from famine. Almost 240,000 of those people are facing "catastrophic levels of hunger".

Yemen has also struggled to deal with the largest cholera outbreak ever recorded, which has resulted in 1.49 million suspected cases and 2,960 related deaths.</s>Save The Children: 7 killed in airstrike on Yemen hospital

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Save The Children says a hospital it supports in Yemen has been hit by an airstrike and seven people have been killed.

The humanitarian organization said in a statement that four of those killed were children. It said eight people were wounded and two adults are unaccounted for.

Save The Children said a missile struck a gasoline station near the entrance to Ritaf rural hospital, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the city of Saada in northwestern Yemen at 9:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday.

It said: "The missile was said to have landed within 50 meters of the facility's main building."

The organization said the hospital had open been open for half an hour and many patients and staff were arriving on a busy morning.</s>At least seven people, including four children, have died after an airstrike hit the entrance to a hospital in a remote rebel-controlled area of Yemen, Save the Children has said.

Two more people are unaccounted for and eight were injured after a western-backed coalition missile blew up a petrol station next to Kitaf hospital in Saada province on Tuesday morning, the charity said.

The hospital had just opened for the day and many staff and patients were arriving at the building. One healthcare worker and their two children are among the dead, according to the organisation, which funds the facility.

Local media published pictures of the building, which appeared to have been levelled.

No comment was immediately forthcoming from the Saudi-led military coalition operating in Yemen to free the country from Houthi rebels and restore the exiled government.

The attack coincided with the fourth anniversary of the Saudi coalition intervention in Yemen’s civil war, which has killed at least 60,000 people, left half the country’s 22 million population food insecure and sparked the worst cholera outbreak in modern history.

“We are shocked and appalled by this outrageous attack,” said Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Save the Children’s chief executive.

“Innocent children and health workers have lost their lives in what appears to have been an indiscriminate attack on a hospital in a densely populated civilian area,” she said. “Attacks like these are a breach of international law.”

The coalition and the western governments who supply it with arms have been repeatedly criticised by rights groups and conflict monitors for bombing campaigns which have hit schools, health facilities, funeral gatherings and wedding parties, killing thousands of civilians.

Yemen’s government and Saudi Arabia accuse the Houthis of using civilians as human shields. The Houthis have launched long-range missiles into neighbouring Saudi Arabia and targeted Saudi ships in the Red Sea.</s>A hospital in a rural area of northwest Yemen was hit by an airstrike on Tuesday killing seven people and wounding eight others, Save the Children said. The international aid organization, which supports the hospital, said in a statement sent to the Associated Press that four of those killed were children and two adults are unaccounted for.

Save The Children said a missile struck a petrol station near the entrance to Ritaf rural hospital, about 100 kilometers from the city of Saada at 9:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday.

“The missile was said to have landed within 50 meters of the facility’s main building,” it said.

 The organization said the hospital had been open for half an hour and many patients and staff were arriving on a busy morning. Among the dead were a health worker and the worker’s two children and a security guard, it said. Save the Children, which reported earlier this week that 37 Yemeni children a month had been killed or injured by foreign bombs in the last year, demanded an urgent investigation into the attack.</s>A hospital in a rural area of northwest Yemen has been hit by an airstrike killing seven people and wounding eight others, Save the Children says.

The international aid organisation, which supports the hospital, said in a statement sent to the Associated Press that four of those killed on Tuesday morning were children and two adults are unaccounted for.

Save The Children said a missile struck a petrol station near the entrance to Ritaf rural hospital, about 100 kilometres from the city of Saada.

"The missile was said to have landed within 50 metres of the facility's main building," it said.

The organisation said the hospital had been open for half an hour and many patients and staff were arriving on a busy morning.

Among the dead were a health worker and the worker's two children and a security guard, it said.

Save the Children, which reported earlier this week that 37 Yemeni children a month had been killed or injured by foreign bombs in the last year, demanded an urgent investigation into the attack.

Saudi-led airstrikes have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties and killed thousands of Yemeni civilians. The Houthis have fired long-range missiles into Saudi Arabia and targeted vessels in the Red Sea.

The fighting in the Arab world's poorest country has killed thousands of civilians, left millions suffering from food and medical care shortages, and pushed the country to the brink of famine.</s>Save The Children says a hospital it supports in Yemen has been hit by an airstrike and 7 people were killed

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Save The Children says a hospital it supports in Yemen has been hit by an airstrike and 7 people were killed.</s>A hospital in a rural area of northwest Yemen was hit by an airstrike Tuesday killing seven people and wounding eight others, Save the Children said.

The international aid organization, which supports the hospital, said in a statement sent to the Associated Press that four of those killed were children and two adults are unaccounted for.

Save The Children said a missile struck a petrol station near the entrance to Kitaf rural hospital, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the city of Saada at 9:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday.

"The missile was said to have landed within 50 metres of the facility's main building," it said.

The organization said the hospital had been open for half an hour and many patients and staff were arriving on a busy morning.

Among the dead were a health worker and the worker's two children and a security guard, it said.

Save the Children, which reported earlier this week that 37 Yemeni children a month had been killed or injured by foreign bombs in the last year, demanded an urgent investigation into the attack.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the organization's chief executive, said: "We are shocked and appalled by this outrageous attack."

"Innocent children and health workers have lost their lives in what appears to been an indiscriminate attack on a hospital in a densely populated civilian area," she said. "Attacks like these are a breach of international law."

Thorning-Schmidt said the hospital is one of many Save the Children supports in Yemen, "but time after time, we see a complete disregard by all warring parties in Yemen for the basic rules of war."

The conflict in Yemen began with the 2014 takeover of the capital, Sanaa, by Iranian-backed Houthi Shiite rebels, who toppled the government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

A Saudi-led coalition allied with Hadi's internationally recognized government has been fighting the Houthis since 2015.

Saudi-led airstrikes have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties and killed thousands of Yemeni civilians. The Houthis have fired long-range missiles into Saudi Arabia and targeted vessels in the Red Sea.

The fighting in the Arab world's poorest country has killed thousands of civilians, left millions suffering from food and medical care shortages, and pushed the country to the brink of famine.

U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock has said about 80 per cent of Yemen's population -- 24 million people -- need humanitarian assistance including nearly 10 million "just a step away from famine" and nearly 240,000 "facing catastrophic levels of hunger."

Thorning-Schmidt called for an immediate suspension of arms sales to the warring parties and diplomatic pressure to end the conflict.

"We must stop this war on children," she said.</s>UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Save The Children says a hospital it supports in Yemen has been hit by an airstrike and 7 people were killed.</s>A hospital in Yemen supported by Save the Children was hit Tuesday by a deadly airstrike that charity officials blamed on the Saudi-led coalition, an attack carried out on the war’s fourth anniversary.

At least seven people were killed, including four children, when a missile struck a gasoline station only yards from the entrance to the Kitaf hospital in rural northwest Yemen about 60 miles from the city of Saada, Save the Children officials said.

The attack damaged the waiting rooms and occurred at the busiest time of the morning for the hospital, said Jason Lee, Save the Children’s deputy director in Yemen.

He said the organization had lodged a strong protest over the airstrike with the Saudi-led authorities, who had the coordinates of the hospital and should have known to avoid the area.</s>March 27 (UPI) -- A hospital in Yemen supported by Save the Children was hit by an airstrike, killing seven people and injuring eight others, the NGO said.

Four children were among the dead and two adults were still unaccounted for following a missile striking a gas station near the entrance to the Kitaf rural hospital at about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, the organization said.

Save the Children said the hospital had only opened a half hour earlier and was attacked as patients and staff were arriving during the busy morning.

Nearby buildings including a pharmacy were destroyed in the blast.

Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the Children, called the attack "a breach of international law."

"We are shocked and appalled by this outrageous attack," she said in a statement. "Innocent children and health workers have lost their lives in what appears to have been an indiscriminate attack on a hospital in a densely populated civilian area."

Also among the dead were a health worker and her two children as well as a security guard, it said.

"These children have the right to be safe in their hospitals, schools and homes," she said. "But time after time, we see a complete disregard by all warring parties in Yemen for the basic rules of war."

Last week Save the Children reported that last year, 37 children a month had been killed or injured by foreign bombs.

It is demanding an urgent investigation into this most recent attack.

The attack also coincided with the fourth anniversary of the start of the civil war between the internationally recognized government of Yemeni President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

The United Nation has called the humanitarian crisis created by the civil war "the world's worst" as some 24 million people, or 80 percent of the population, need assistance.

Save the Children is calling for full diplomatic pressure to be applied to both parties to resolve the conflict and for those who commit violations of international law to be held accountable.

"Children must be protected," Miles said. "We must stop this war on children."
An airstrike carried out in north-west Yemen kills seven and injures eight others at a hospital. The airstrike occurred early when patients and staff members were arriving.