Yemen’s Houthi rebels said 68 people were killed and 47 injured in a U.S. airstrike on a detention centre housing African migrants in the city of Saada.
The Iran-backed group, which controls northwestern Yemen, claimed the facility was supervised by the International Organization for Migration and the Red Cross, describing the attack as “a full-fledged war crime”, according to a statement released by the group.
The U.S. military had no immediate comment on the allegations.
Graphic footage aired by the Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel showed what appeared to be bodies and wounded people at the detention centre.
Yemen serves as a key transit route for migrants from Africa, primarily Ethiopia and Somalia, attempting to reach Saudi Arabia and Oman. An estimated 300,000 migrants are currently in Yemen, a country devastated by a decade-long civil war.
The incident recalls a similar 2022 attack by a Saudi-led coalition on the same compound that killed 66 detainees and wounded 113 others, according to a United Nations report. The Houthis shot dead 16 detainees who fled after that strike and wounded another 50, the UN said.
The United States has been conducting near-daily strikes against Houthi targets since March 15 in an operation called “Rough Rider”, aimed at stopping the group’s attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The rebel group began targeting Israeli and western vessels in the Red Sea in October 2023, claiming solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Their most recent attack on Saturday targeted Israel’s Nevatim airbase with what they described as a Palestine-2 hypersonic ballistic missile, which Israeli defences intercepted.
U.S. tactics against the Houthis have intensified since the Trump administration redesignated the group as a foreign terrorist organisation in January. The campaign has expanded beyond targeting missile sites to include strikes against the group’s political leadership.
More than 750 strikes have been authorised since mid-March, with operations conducted from the USS Harry S Truman in the Red Sea and B-2 bombers operating from Diego Garcia, the UK base in the Indian Ocean leased to the United States.
The Houthis claim to have downed seven U.S. Reaper drones in less than six weeks.
(information from The Guardian)
