At least 70 people were killed and 138 injured in a bombing attributed to the Saudi-led military coalition against a detention center located in Sadah, a stronghold of the Houthi rebels in northern Yemen, according to information from local government officials, international organizations and the rebels who control the area.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Friday that “there are more than 100 people dead and injured, and the toll is rising”.
The bodies of the victims were stored in morgues at three hospitals in the city of Sadah, close to the Saudi Arabian border, as rescue and search operations continued at the scene of the attack that took place on Thursday night.
The director of Médecins Sans Frontières told the international press that the city’s hospital received about 70 dead and 138 injured, and that it no longer had the capacity to treat more people. Two other hospitals in the city were also filled with victims of the attack.
The attack also brought down the internet across the country.
The target of the attack was a two-story building located in the city that served as a detention center for defendants awaiting trial, many of them African immigrants who arrived in Yemen and tried to enter Saudi Arabia illegally.
Residents of the city previously told Efe that Arab coalition planes carried out three consecutive bombings, but the Riyadh-led alliance has not confirmed this military action, although it has launched others against the city of Al Hudeida in southwest Yemen.
The Houthi government’s health minister, Taha al Mutawakil, told Al Masira TV that there were 65 bodies recovered so far and the wounded numbered 138.
He also appealed through the insurgent-affiliated broadcaster for international organizations and NGOs to send medical supplies, equipment and an air ambulance to treat and evacuate the wounded.
Al Mutawakil said the Yemeni health system cannot handle this “emergency”, especially in Sadah, noting that hospitals currently do not have the fuel to run all the electric generators.
Hostilities intensified in Yemen after an attack on an airport in the United Arab Emirates that was claimed by the Houthis.
Sadah Province is located in the extreme northwest of Yemen and is one of the main strongholds of Shia rebels; its infrastructure has been severely damaged in the last seven years of conflict, with supplies running low in Houthi-controlled territories.
The Arab coalition that has intervened in Yemen since March 2015, in addition to carrying out bombing campaigns, imposes a blockade on the country, controlling goods that enter by sea, land and air, claiming that the Houthis receive weapons from their ally, Iran.
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