Yemen: Saudi-led coalition kills 39 in Sana’a strike

The Saudi-led coalition executed air strikes on a police camp in the Houthi-controlled capital Sana’a today, killing 39 and injuring more than 90, Reuters reported.

The Houthis had held 180 Yemeni governmental forces as prisoners in the police camp located in eastern Sana’a.

Hussain Al-Bukhaiti, a Sana’a based journalist reported that in total six air strikes stuck the police station, around midnight.

#BREAKING NEWS
Casualties of #Saudi #UAE 6 strikes on military police camp prison #Sanaa #Yemen exceeded 60 dead and more than 113 injrd
Most of them prisoners of war #POWs
1st wave of strikes targetd the prison
2nd wave targeted the surrounding area killing who survived 1st wave pic.twitter.com/SjPX8azyEi

— Hussain Albukhaiti (@HussainBukhaiti) December 13, 2017

Some 60 were reported killed and more than 113 injured by the Saudi-led coalition strikes according to Al-Bukhaithi.

Saudi Arabia has not publically commented on the strikes.

Since the killing of the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh last week, there has been an increase of strikes in Sana’a in a bid to push back the Houthis towards northern Yemen. The effort to retake territory has been joined by several actors on the ground as part of a new alliance. President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi’s national army has been joined by the Saleh’s forces and surrounding tribes which seek to take over the port of Hudaydah. The Yemeni forces today retook control of territorial positions in Taiz.

The United Arab Emirates backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) has also joined the Yemeni coalition to fight the Houthis, which has changed conflict dynamics on the ground.

The Saudi-led coalition entered Yemen in March 2015 and has been called out previously for potential war crimes for its indiscriminate targeting practices in Yemen. In August, Saudi Arabia targeted a civilian apartment block killing at least 12 people, six of them children, according to residents. Saudi Arabia conceded thereafter that it was due to an unspecified “technical error”.

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A view of the scene after air strikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition hit Sanaa, Yemen on 13 December 2017 [Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency]

Yemenis remove the bodies of those killed in a Saudi-led coalition air strike in Sanaa, Yemen on 13 December 2017 [Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency]

An ambulance arrives after a Saudi-led coalition air strike hit Sanaa, Yemen on 13 December 2017 [Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency]

Yemenis remove the bodies of those killed in a Saudi-led coalition air strike in Yemen on 13 December 2017 [Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency]

Investigators inspect the scene after a Saudi-led coalition air strike hit Sanaa, Yemen on 13 December 2017 [Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency]