Yemen prison airstrike death toll rises as Houthi-Saudi fighting flares

An airstrike hit a Houthi-run prison in Yemen's Jawf province, killing at least 23 people. The strike and retaliatory attacks have sharpened fears for the country's fragile ceasefire.

In Short

• Rescue teams recovered four more bodies, taking the confirmed toll to 23
• Seven people were injured, while rescuers still searched for seven missing
• A child died, and one injured visitor was a prisoner's wife

Rescuers in Yemen on Wednesday pulled more bodies from the rubble of a prison run by Iran-backed Houthi rebels that was hit in an airstrike earlier this week, as fresh fighting between the rebels and a Saudi-led coalition threatened the country’s fragile ceasefire. The strike has also come amid a wider escalation that is affecting shipping and oil infrastructure linked to Red Sea routes.

The prison in Hazm, the capital of Jawf province, collapsed on Monday when coalition strikes hit the area. At least 23 people were killed, including four bodies recovered on Wednesday, and seven people were injured. It was not immediately clear how many people were inside the prison when it was hit.

Hassan Saboula, director of Jawf’s civil defence agency, said a child was among those killed on Monday and that rescue teams were still searching for seven missing people. The identities of those killed have not yet been determined, al-Masirah satellite news channel cited him as saying. Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry, said one of the injured was a woman who had been visiting her husband.

After the strike on Monday, the Houthis on Tuesday launched attacks on cities in southern Saudi Arabia. The coalition responded early on Wednesday with more airstrikes targeting Houthi military facilities in Jawf and Marib provinces. In a statement on Wednesday, Houthi military spokesman Brig Gen Yahya Saree said the prison strike was carried out by an F15-SA Saudi aircraft. He said the plane took off from King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait at 4.30 pm on Monday, hit the prison and returned to the base 15 minutes later. The Saudi government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The rebels said they targeted the base on Tuesday as part of their strikes on several cities in southern Saudi Arabia.

Yemen descended into civil war in 2014 when the Houthis moved from their northern stronghold and seized the capital, Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognised government to flee south and then into exile in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war the following year in an attempt to restore the government. According to UN estimates, the war has killed at least 150,000 people and at times pushed the country to the brink of famine.

The latest escalation began in July when the Houthis tried to fly a plane from Tehran to Sanaa, challenging a decade-long air and naval blockade by the coalition. The coalition struck the runway in Sanaa, stopping the flight from landing. Since then, the Houthis have targeted Saudi Arabia and attacked Saudi shipping in the Red Sea. On Tuesday, they struck several Saudi oil facilities, leading to the temporary suspension of some operations, according to the Saudi Energy Ministry. The rebels have also been attacking Saudi-allied government forces on several fronts inside Yemen, although government forces earlier this month hit Houthi positions on the Red Sea in western Yemen.

Even before the prison strike in Jawf, the latest violence in Yemen had killed at least 194 people between August 23 and September 5 and wounded more than 880, according to the World Health Organisation. More than 21,000 people have been displaced. The latest exchanges have deepened the crisis, with the prison strike, retaliatory attacks and fresh airstrikes further straining a four-year truce that had largely halted the war.

With PTI Inputs

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