Yemen Prison Airstrike Death Toll Rises To 23 As Search Continues
Rescuers recover more bodies as seven people remain missing.
The death toll from an airstrike on a Houthi-run prison in northern Yemen has risen to 23, with seven people still missing, according to Houthi officials. Rescue teams recovered four additional bodies while searching through the rubble of the prison in Hazm, the capital of northern Jawf province. The facility collapsed on Monday after being hit during coalition airstrikes targeting the strategic city.
Hassan Saboula, director of the civil defence agency in Jawf, reported that a child was among those killed and that rescue teams were continuing efforts to locate seven missing people. The identities of those killed had not yet been determined, according to the Houthi-run Al-Masirah satellite news channel. At least seven people were also injured in the strike, including a woman who had been visiting her husband at the prison, according to a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry.
The prison strike came amid a wider escalation between the Iran-aligned Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition. Following the attack, the Houthis launched missile and drone strikes towards southern Saudi Arabia, leaving 73 people injured, according to Saudi authorities. The coalition subsequently carried out further airstrikes on Houthi military facilities in the Yemeni provinces of Marib and Jawf.
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Yemen has remained divided by a conflict that began in 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognised government into exile in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year to support the government. The conflict has killed at least 150,000 people, according to United Nations estimates, and has repeatedly pushed Yemen towards severe humanitarian crises.
The latest escalation has also affected regional security and shipping. The Houthis have targeted Saudi Arabia and attacked Saudi-linked shipping in the Red Sea, while Saudi authorities reported attacks on oil facilities and utilities that temporarily disrupted some operations. Government forces have also intensified operations against Houthi positions along Yemen's western coast, marking a significant deterioration after years of reduced fighting.
The World Health Organization reported that at least 194 people were killed and more than 880 wounded between August 23 and September 5, while more than 21,000 people were displaced. The renewed violence has effectively shattered a four-year truce that had substantially reduced fighting in Yemen's long-running civil war, raising concerns over further civilian casualties and displacement.
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