The Yemeni government continued with its campaign of air strikes against the northern Saada region today, destroying a hospital near the Saudi border and leaving at least 44 people in the Shi’ite region slain.

The government insisted the hospital was long abandoned and contained only rebels, but Doctors Without Borders reported that the Razeh hospital was fully functional, and rebels say the 27 killed inside the hospital were civilians.

The Yemeni military has killed many hundreds over the past several weeks of attacks on the region, which has, like many other regions of the nation, had a nascent insurgency for years.

The latest offensive began in August, when President Ali Abdullah Saleh insisted the government would spare no expense, buying weapons instead of building schools, to crush sedition. Since then the military has attacked fleeing masses and bombed a refugee camp, all the while pressing the US for increased aid.

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