Houthi claims 7 killed in Saudi airstrike on Yemen prison

Houthi claims 7 killed in Saudi airstrike on Yemen prison

Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out an airstrike on a prison in the country's north, killing seven people, including a child, according to Houthi media.

The strike on the Central Corrective Facility in Al-Hazm, the capital of Al-Jawf province, also wounded at least seven others, including a woman, said Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry .

The Houthi-run Al-Masirah television aired footage showing a collapsed building and rescue workers searching through the rubble. The prison's warden told the channel that 35 prisoners and a woman visiting her husband were trapped under the debris .

Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree accused Saudi Arabia of launching airstrikes and "committing massacres" in Jawf, as well as deploying reconnaissance drones and supplying mercenaries with weapons. "The ongoing Saudi aggression against Yemen will not go unanswered or unpunished," he said . There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia's media ministry .

Saree later claimed that Houthi forces had shot down four Saudi reconnaissance drones over the past 24 hours . The claims come as forces of Yemen's internationally recognised government have advanced across multiple fronts, including Jawf, Bayda, Dahle and Marib provinces .

UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg expressed alarm over the escalation and called on all parties to cease hostilities, exercise maximum restraint and protect civilians. "A return to sustained large-scale fighting will carry grave consequences for civilians and make an already difficult path toward a political settlement even harder," he warned .

Strikes on prisons have occurred before during Yemen's long-running conflict. In 2022, a strike by the Saudi-led coalition on a detention facility in Saada province killed at least 87 prisoners, and a 2019 strike on a Houthi-run facility in Dhamar killed over 100 people.