Saudi-led raids kill dozens in Houthi police prison camp, says official

Saudi-led coalition aircraft struck a military police camp in the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital Sanaa on Wednesday, killing at least 39 people and wounding 90 more, including some prisoners, an official and witnesses said.

The strike is part of an air campaign by the Western-backed coalition on the Iran-allied rebels that has escalated since the Houthis crushed an uprising last week led by former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh and killed him.

One official in the camp, in eastern Sanaa, said coalition aircraft launched seven raids. He estimated there were about 180 prisoners being held there.

The official said rescue teams had pulled out 35 bodies from the rubble, while the rest were not accounted for.

It was the latest in a string of coalition air raids on Sanaa and other parts of the country, sometimes causing multiple casualties among civilians.

A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition could not immediately be reached for comment on the report. The coalition denies that it targets civilians.

The US and Britain provide political backing as well as weapons and logistical support for the Saudi-led coalition, which has been fighting since 2015 to restore Yemen’s internationally recognised president, Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, to power.

Hadi has been based in Riyadh since 2015 and reportedly has been banned from returning to Yemen by his Saudi hosts, following a dispute between the exiled president and the United Arab Emirates, whose forces control the southern city of Aden.