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Yemen’s Houthi rebels say 68 dead in US airstrike on prison Yemen’s Houthi rebels say 68 dead in US airstrike on prison
(about 2 hours later)
Alleged attack on facility holding African detainees raises fresh questions over US military operations in regionAlleged attack on facility holding African detainees raises fresh questions over US military operations in region
Yemen’s Houthi rebels say a US airstrike has killed 68 people in a prison holding African detainees. The US military had no immediate comment. Yemen’s Houthi rebels say 68 people have been killed and 47 injured in a US strike on a detention centre holding African migrants in the city of Saada.
The alleged strike in Yemen’s Saada governorate, a stronghold for the Houthis, is the latest incident in the country’s decade-long war in which people from Ethiopia and other countries who have risked crossing Yemen for a chance to work in neighbouring Saudi Arabia have died. The rebel group, which governs north-west Yemen, said the shelter was under the supervision of the International Organization for Migration and the Red Cross and targeting it “constitutes a full-fledged war crime”. The US military had no immediate comment.
It is also likely to renew questions from activists about the US campaign, known as “Operation Rough Rider”, which has been targeting the rebels as the Trump administration negotiates with their main benefactor, Iran, over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme. The US has been conducting near-daily strikes against the Iranian-backed group since 15 March in an operation dubbed “Rough Rider”, seeking to end the threat it poses to vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The US military’s Central Command, in a statement early on Monday before news of the alleged strike broke, sought to defend its policy of offering no specific details of operations. The airstrikes have caused controversy in the US over the defence secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the Signal messaging app to post sensitive details about the attacks. The Houthis started targeting Israeli and western vessels in the Red Sea in October 2023, in what they describe as solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The latest Houthi attack, on Saturday, targeted Israel’s Nevatim airbase with a Palestine-2 hypersonic ballistic missile. The missile was shot down by Israeli defences.
“To preserve operational security, we have intentionally limited disclosing details of our ongoing or future operations,” Central Command said. “We are very deliberate in our operational approach, but will not reveal specifics about what we’ve done or what we will do.” Graphic footage aired by the Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel in the aftermath of the strike on Sunday night showed what appeared to be dead bodies and others wounded at the detention centre.
It did not immediately respond to questions from the Associated Press about the alleged strike in Saada. Yemen has long been a key transit country for the people from Africa – mainly from Ethiopia and Somalia – trying to reach Saudi Arabia and Oman. One estimate claims there are more than 300,000 migrants across Yemen, a country devastated by a 10-year civil war. The Houthis allegedly make tens of thousands of dollars a week smuggling people over the border.
Graphic footage aired by the Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel showed what appeared to be dead bodies and others wounded at the site. The Houthi-run interior ministry said 115 migrants had been detained at the site. Monday’s alleged strike recalled a similar attack by a Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthis in 2022 on the same compound, which caused a collapse, killing 66 detainees and wounding 113 others, a United Nations report later said. The Houthis shot dead 16 detainees who fled after the strike and wounded another 50, the UN said. The Saudi-led coalition sought to justify the strike by saying the Houthis built and launched drones there, but the UN said it was known to be a detention facility.
Al-Masirah later said at least 68 people had been killed. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the death toll. The rebels’ civil defence organisation separately said 47 others had been wounded in the attack. The US military has shifted tactics since the arrival of the Trump administration, which declared the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organisation in January. Since mid-March the US has mounted a much more sustained bombardment that is aimed at not only knocking out Houthi missile sties but also its political leadership, including Abdelmalek al-Houthi, the Houthi leader since 2004.
Footage from the site analysed by AP suggested some kind of explosion took place, with the prison’s cement walls seemingly peppered by debris fragments and the nature of the wounds suffered. In a statement early on Monday before news of the latest strike broke, US Central command said: “To preserve operational security, we have intentionally limited disclosing details of our ongoing or future operations. We are very deliberate in our operational approach, but will not reveal specifics about what we’ve done or what we will do.”
A woman’s voice can be heard repeating the start of a prayer in Arabic: “In the name of God.” An occasional gunshot rang out as medics sought to help those wounded. In March, Donald Trump claimed that the Houthis – the last militant group in Iran’s self-described “axis of resistance” that is capable of regularly attacking Israel – had been “decimated” by US strikes. But he also warned: “Stop shooting at US ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran.”
Ethiopians and people from other African countries have for years landed in Yemen, braving the wartorn country to try to reach Saudi Arabia for work. The Houthi rebels allegedly make tens of thousands of dollars a week smuggling people over the border. The effectiveness of the US strikes is disputed and the Houthis in the past have shown an ability to withstand a bombardment by Saudi Arabian jets supplemented by British guidance.
Ethiopians have found themselves detained, abused and even killed in Saudi Arabia and Yemen during the war. A letter to the kingdom from the UN in October 2022 said its investigators had “received concerning allegations of cross-border artillery shelling and small arms fire allegedly by Saudi security forces, causing the deaths of up to 430 and injuring 650 migrants”. The UK has also been more involved in the latest US military operations than any other European country. The bulk of the US strikes have been launched from USS Harry S Truman in the Red Sea, but additional strikes were carried out by USAF B-2 bombers operating from Diego Garcia, the UK base in the Indian Ocean leased to the US.
Saudi Arabia has denied the claim. More than 750 strikes have been authorised since the decision in mid-March to raise the level of bombardment.
Monday’s alleged strike recalled a similar strike by a Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthis in 2022 on the same compound, which caused a collapse, killing 66 detainees and wounding 113 others, a United Nations report later said. The Houthis shot dead 16 detainees who fled after the strike and wounded another 50, the UN said. The Saudi-led coalition sought to justify the strike by saying the Houthis built and launched drones there, but the UN said it was known to be a detention facility. The Houthis for their part claim to have downed seven US Reaper drones in less than six weeks at a cost of over $200m to the Pentagon.
“The coalition should have avoided any attack on that facility,” the UN report added. The value of the US attacks on the Houthi leadership is disputed, with some claiming the movement would not be disrupted if its leader were assassinated. The Houthis are Zaydi Shia, a branch that believes that leadership should be limited to descendants of the prophet Mohammed and that leaders must fulfil specific criteria, including being recognised religious scholars.
That 2022 attack was one of the deadliest single attacks in the years-long war between the coalition and the Houthi rebels and came after the Houthis struck inside the UAE twice with missiles and drones, killing three in a strike near Abu Dhabi’s international airport. Writing recently in the Yemen Review, Maysaa Shuja Al-Deen, a senior researcher at Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, argued: “Without a respected local Zaidi authority figure capable of mediating or guiding the transition, the dispute would likely remain unresolved without external intervention. In this situation, Iran’s role would be key. Its political and military backing for one of the rival factions could prove decisive in shaping the group’s future direction”.
Meanwhile, US airstrikes overnight targeting Yemen’s capital killed at least eight people, the Houthis said. The American military acknowledged carrying out more than 800 individual strikes in its month-long campaign.
The overnight statement from Central Command also said Operation Rough Rider had “killed hundreds of Houthi fighters and numerous Houthi leaders”, including those associated with its missile and drone programme. It did not identify any of those officials.
The US is targeting the Houthis because of the group’s attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route, and on Israel. The Houthis are also the last militant group in Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” that is capable of regularly attacking Israel.