UN chief slams Saudi-led airstrikes on Yemen's clinic

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday condemned the airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition on a mobile health clinic in Yemen and called for "a prompt, effective and impartial investigation" into the incident.

In a statement issued here by his spokesman, Ban said the attacked clinic in Taiz city, south Yemen, is run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian-aid non-governmental organization.

According to the MSF, the strikes injured seven people and destroyed the clinic.

Meanwhile, Ban condemned an earlier incident on Oct. 27 during which a hospital run by the MSF in Yemen's northwestern Saada province was hit by airstrikes, the statement said.

"The secretary-general underscores that medical facilities and medical personnel are explicitly protected under international humanitarian law," the statement said.

"The secretary-general reminds all parties of the utmost necessity to respect their obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law to prevent attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure," the statement added.

At least eight civilians were killed in Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen's southern province of Taiz on Thursday, reports said.

The attack was the fourth on a facility run by the MSF and came just days after an MSF hospital was bombed in Syria, which killed seven people and left the building in ruins.

The fresh attacks cast a shadow on the upcoming peace talks to be held by the United Nations in Geneva, which aim to end the current civil war between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and the Shiite Houthi group supported by Iran. Endi