Fri 21 January 2022:
A Houthi official and the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) have confirmed that dozens of people were killed in an air raid on a prison in northern Yemen, following a night of deadly bombing that highlighted a dramatic escalation in violence in the country’s long-running conflict.
After the Houthis launched an unprecedented assault on coalition member the United Arab Emirates on Monday, and further cross-border missile and drone launches at Saudi cities, a Saudi-led military coalition has increased air raids on what it claims are military targets linked to the Houthi rebel movement.
An MSF spokesperson told the AFP news agency at least 70 people were killed and 138 others were wounded in the attack.
The figures came from one hospital in Saada, the spokesperson said, adding, “Two others in the city have received many wounded as well and the rubble is still being searched.”
The air raids came five days after the Houthis claimed a drone-and-missile attack on the United Arab Emirates that killed three people and prompted warnings of reprisals.
According to Save the Children, the escalation of the conflict resulted in a 60 percent increase in civilian casualties in the last three months of 2021, with 2022 already poised to have wider consequences for civilians.
Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis overran the capital Sanaa, prompting Saudi-led forces to intervene to prop up the government the following year.
Tensions have soared in recent weeks after the UAE-backed Giants Brigade drove the rebels out of Shabwa province, undermining their months-long campaign to take the key city of Marib further north.
On January 3, the Houthis hijacked a United Arab Emirates-flagged ship in the Red Sea, prompting a warning from the coalition that it would target rebel-held ports.
The ship’s 11 international crew members are being held captive.
The UN has estimated the war killed 377,000 people by the end of 2021, both directly and indirectly through hunger and disease.
UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash warned the country would exercise its right to defend itself after the Abu Dhabi attack.
“The Emirates have the legal and moral right to defend their lands, population and sovereignty, and will exercise this right to defend themselves and prevent terrorist acts pursued by the Houthi group,” he told US special envoy Hans Grundberg, according to the official WAM news agency.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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