CAIRO — Houthi rebels in Yemen accused Saudi Arabia of striking a prison on Monday in the country’s north, killing seven, including a child, as tensions escalate between the Iran-backed group and Saudi-backed Yemeni forces .
The strike on the Central Corrective Facility in the strategic city of Hazm in Jawf province also wounded at least seven people, including a woman, said Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry.
A Saudi-led coalition entered the Yemen war the following year in an attempt to restore the government. There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia’s media ministry. The Houthi claim came as forces of the internationally recognized government advanced across multiple fronts in Yemen, including in Jawf, Bayda, Dahle, and Marib provinces.
Yemen plunged into civil war in 2014 when the Houthis descended from their northern stronghold and seized the capital, Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee southward, then into exile in Saudi Arabia. Saree said later Monday that Houthi forces downed a total of four reconnaissance drones belonging to Saudi Arabia over the past 24 hours, including one that was spotted Monday morning in Bayda province. The civil war in Yemen has killed at least 150,000 people, according to U.N. estimates, and at times pushed the country to the brink of famine. A ceasefire that had mostly held since 2022 is now in tatters.
“The ongoing Saudi aggression against Yemen will not go unanswered or unpunished,” he said.
