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10 killed and dozens injured after Saudi coalition allegedly bombs school in Yemen

The attack occurred after the Pentagon announced that it was selling $1.15 billion in weapons to Saudi Arabia and $750 million in guided aerial munitions to the UAE, both of which are taking part in the air war in Yemen.
Employees show the damages at a snack food factory after a Saudi-led air strike hit it in Sanaa, Yemen, August 9, 2016. (Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)

Ten children are dead and at least 28 injured after an airstrike on a school in northern Yemen by US-backed Saudi coalition forces.

Doctors without Borders confirmed in a statement the attack on the school, and said all the victims were between eight and 15 years old.

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The coalition, meanwhile, denies that they bombed a school.

"The aircraft has bombed a training camp for the coup militias" coalition spokesman General Ahmed Assiri told AFP, asserting that the Iran-backed Houthi insurgents use children "as recruits."

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News of the bombing comes just a week after UN-backed peace talks collapsed between the US and Saudi-backed Yemeni government and the Shiite Houthi insurgents, who seized Sanaa, the nation's capital, and other regions since 2014.

The news also comes just days after the Pentagon announced that it was selling $1.15 billion in weapons to Saudi Arabia — including 266 M240 machine guns, 153 M2.50 caliber machine guns, 133 main battle tanks and 250 smoke grenade launchers.

Related: US declassifies 28 pages on Saudi Arabia's alleged role in 9/11

The US State Department last month approved nearly a billion dollars in aerial weapons sales — including 14,000 Paveway guided bombs and Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kits — to the UAE, which is also part of the coalition flying sorties in Yemen.

Since the Yemen Civil War began in March 2015, the US has sold more than $20 billion in weapons to Saudi Arabia, according to the Intercept. Amnesty International and other rights organizations have repeatedly warned Western countries that their backing of the Saudis in the Yemen War effectively implicates them in the "gross violations of human rights and possible war crimes during aerial and ground attacks."

"These countries are arming and aiding a campaign that's bombing, killing and starving civilians," Yemeni researcher Nawal al-Maghafi said in an Amnesty International statement in February.

Follow Tess Owen on Twitter: @misstessowen