Saudi Attack on Yemeni Prison Left over 100 Dead, Says ICRC
The coalition claimed it had targeted a facility run by the Houthi Ansarullah movement that “stores drones and missiles,” but the movement and independent sources said the attack had leveled a building used as a prison.
The ICRC rushed to the scene in the city of Dhamar with medical teams and hundreds of body bags.
“The location that was hit has been visited by ICRC before,” Franz Rauchenstein, its head of delegation for Yemen, told AFP from Dhamar. “It’s a college building that has been empty and has been used as a detention facility for a while.”
“What is most disturbing is that (the attack was) on a prison. To hit such a building is shocking and saddening — prisoners are protected by international law.”
Rauchenstein said that over 100 people were estimated to be dead, and that at least 40 survivors were being treated for their injuries in hospitals in the city, south of the capital Sanaa.
ICRC teams collecting bodies were also “working relentlessly to find survivors under the rubble,” he said, but cautioned that the chances of finding any were very slim.
Footage obtained by AFP showed heavy damage to the building and several bodies lying in the rubble, as bulldozers worked to clear away huge piles of debris.
The Western-backed coalition, which has come under intense criticism by rights groups for air attacks that have killed civilians, said it had taken measures to protect civilians in Dhamar and the assault complied with international law.
