THE Saudi-led Yemen invasion coalition claimed yesterday that children killed when it bombed a school were Houthi rebels.

Al-Alam News Network and Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that some 50 children were killed on Saturday in air strikes on a school in Haydan in north-western Saada province, which borders Saudi Arabia.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it had received 10 dead and 28 wounded at its field hospital. MSF spokeswoman Malak Shahe said that the casualties were all under 15 and the “victims of air strikes on a Koranic school.”

Coalition spokesman General Ahmed Assiri denied targeting a school, instead accusing Houthi clan supporters of de-facto president Ali Abdullah Saleh of using “children as recruits.”

“The aircraft has bombed a training camp for the coup militias … in Saada,” he said, referring to the army-backed Houthis.

The coalition launched its bombing campaign against Yemen in March last year in a bid to reinstall ousted president Abbed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, and this soon escalated to a ground invasion.

It destroyed the MSF-supported hospital in Haydan in October then went on to bomb another MSF facility in south-western Taiz in December and the Shiara Hospital in the Razeh district of Saada in January.

Four people were killed and 10 injured — including three MSF members — in the January bombing.

On Saturday the Yemeni Republican Guard captured al-Qaf in the Jada’an district of central Marib province after a fierce battle with Hadi loyalist militia.

The victory puts the army within six miles of the provincial capital.