Smoke rises from the site of Saudi-led air strikes in Sanaa, Aug. 31 – Photo by Reuters

GENEVA — The U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday declined to set up an independent inquiry into abuses in Yemen, instead calling on a national inquiry to investigate by violations by all sides, including the killing of civilians and attacks on hospitals.

The move disappointed activists, who, along with the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, had called for an independent probe, especially into air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government.

The United Nations blames the coalition strikes for 60 percent of some 3,800 civilian deaths since March 2015.

The alliance has been fighting the Houthi movement in Yemen since March 2015 after the group took over the capital and forced internationally recognized and Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile.

The Yemeni National Commission of Inquiry reports to Hadi.

“For now, Saudi and its allies, like the U.S., have shown they can still block efforts at the U.N. to ensure accountability for war crimes in Yemen,” Salma Amer, U.N. advocacy officer at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies said in a statement.

Senior U.N. officials had seen the Yemeni issue as a test of the council’s credibility after it also backed away a year ago from launching an independent inquiry.

The U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, said last month that the national probe lacked impartiality as it focused on alleged violations committed by Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and had not worked in pursuing perpetrators.