Saudi-Led Airstrikes Kill At Least 50 Prisoners in Yemen
Earlier, al-Masirah TV channel said that after the airstrikes on the prison in Dhamar, 40 victims were pulled out of rubbles and 30 others sent to hospitals.
Head of Yemen’s National Committee for Prisoners Affairs Abdul Qader al-Mortada said the targeted prison housed over 170 prisoners of war, most of whom were supposed to be part of a local exchange deal.
He held the “Saudi-led coalition of aggressors” responsible for the deaths and called on international organizations and others to condemn the heinous crime.
The coalition claimed on Sunday that the air strikes had hit military targets.
The Saudi-led alliance, which has come under criticism by international rights groups for air strikes that have killed civilians, said it had taken measures to protect civilians in Dhamar and the assault complied with international law.
Saudi Arabia and its allies have been striking Yemen since March 2015 to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed thousands of Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children. Despite Riyadh's claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.
Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with more than 22 million people in need and is seeing a spike in needs, fueled by ongoing conflict, a collapsing economy and diminished social services and livelihoods. The blockade on Yemen has smothered humanitarian deliveries of food and medicine to the import-dependent state.
The UN has repeatedly criticized the Saudi-UAE-led military coalition's bombing campaign and placed it on a blacklist of child rights violators last year.
A UN panel has also compiled a detailed report of civilian casualties caused by the Saudi military and its allies during their war against Yemen, saying the Riyadh-led coalition has used precision-guided munitions in its raids on civilian targets.
