At least 70 people were killed in an attack on a prison in an area controlled by rebel groups in Yemen, after a series of bombings that hit Sa’ada, in the north of the country, overnight, rescue teams said on Friday (21). ).
The death toll is still expected to rise, according to aid groups in the region. Rescuers began pulling bodies out of the prison’s rubble and piling up dismembered corpses, according to footage released by the Houthi rebels.
Saada province is controlled by the Iranian-backed group that managed to seize the capital and overthrow the country’s president in 2015, but is opposed by a military coalition of countries in the region led by Saudi Arabia. It is, according to the UN, the most serious humanitarian crisis in the world.
During the night, another coalition bombardment hit the port city of Hodeida, a rebel outpost in the west of the country, disrupting the country’s internet signal. According to the NGO Save The Children, at least three children died in that attack. “Apparently, they were playing on a nearby football field when the missiles landed,” said Gillian Moyes, director of the organization’s Yemeni arm.
The city’s hospital has taken in about 200 wounded and said it is overwhelmed, unable to take in more patients, the organization Doctors Without Borders reported. “There are still many bodies at the scene of the attack and many missing,” said Ahmed Mahat, head of the organization’s delegation in the country.
The Saudi state news agency reported that the coalition launched, against a “center of piracy and organized crime, bombings to destroy the ability of the Houthi militias to act in Hodeidah”.
The port of Hodeidah is a strategic area through which humanitarian aid flows to Yemen and a fundamental bastion in the conflict. The conflict in the country escalated after Houthi rebels hijacked an Emirati-flagged ship in the Red Sea in early January, prompting the coalition to threaten rebel-held ports with bombers if the ship was not released.
On Monday (17), Houthi militias launched an unprecedented drone attack on oil facilities in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, leaving three dead and six injured. Since then, the military coalition has intensified air strikes against the Houthis.
The UN Security Council condemned the Houthi attack on the United Arab Emirates in a statement released on Friday, in which it highlighted “the need to hold the agents, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice.” “. The United Arab Emirates joined the council this month as a temporary member.
UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash said the country would exercise its right to defend itself, in a statement sent to US emissary Hans Grundberg, published by state agency WAM. The Emirates played a key role in establishing, training and arming the so-called “Giant Brigade forces”, groups that allowed government forces to recapture a rebel-held province in southern Yemen.
Asked about the air strikes on Friday, Emirati Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh told reporters: “The coalition is committed to complying with international law and proportionate response in all its military operations.” According to the UN, the war in Yemen left 377,000 dead among direct and indirect victims of this seven-year conflict. The tension dates back to 2014, when Shia rebels from the Houthi group rose up and took control of the capital, Sanaa, forcing the resignation of then-President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi in January 2015.
Two months later, a military coalition of Gulf countries, led by Saudi Arabia and with logistical and intelligence support from the United States, began to attack the rebel groups. In September of that year, Hadi reversed her resignation and went on to “rule from exile”.
The Houthis supported the return to power of former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled the country from 1978 to 2012 and was one of the leaders to fall in the Arab Spring. In December 2017, however, Saleh broke with the insurgents and was killed two days later. Today, the war has turned into a kind of proxy conflict, pitting Iran, which supports the Houthis, and Saudi Arabia, which leads the coalition against the rebels.
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