The Saudi-led coalition said on Sunday that it launched airstrikes against Houthi military targets in southwest Yemen. In a statement broadcasted on Saudi television, the coalition said it had destroyed a storage site for drones and missiles in the city of Dhamar.
On the other hand, the Houthi movement’s Al-Masirah channel said that the attack targeted a prison and that 40 bodies had been recovered from the rubble.
The coalition said the targeting in Dhamar “is consistent with international humanitarian law and customary rules and that all preventive measures have been taken to protect civilians”.
Al-Masirah channel quoted Abdul-Qader Al-Murtada, head of the Houthi national committee for prisoners’ affairs, as saying that the detention centre in Dhamar had about 170 prisoners.
Two weeks ago, the military spokesperson for the Houthi movement said the movement had launched 10 drone attacks on oil facilities in the Shaybah field in eastern Saudi Arabia, describing the attacks as the biggest offensive in Saudi depth. He vowed more operations against the kingdom.
In September 2014, the conflict erupted in Yemen after the Ansar Allah “Houthi” group, backed by Iran, seized control of the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
After that, Saudi Arabia, the closest regional power to Yemen, announced forming the Coalition for Supporting Legitimacy in Yemen in March 2015, in order to restore “legitimacy” and defeat the Houthis who Riyadh described as one of Iran’s fingers in the Middle East.
The United Nations, which is working toward a ceasefire in the country, repeatedly said that the conflict in Yemen had catastrophic impacts on the country’s economy and humanitarian situation in the poor country as well as medical issues. Yemen is facing the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
According to international organisations including the Red Cross, the conflict in Yemen has resulted in killing more than 100,000 civilians and wounding hundreds of thousands.
