SANAA – Saudi-led coalition air strikes on rebel-held security buildings in western Yemen have killed at least 60 people, many of them inmates buried under the rubble of their detention centre.
The strikes late Saturday came just hours after other coalition raids hit three residential buildings in the southwest of the country, killing 17 civilians, Dawn News reported
However, Yemen’s President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi on Saturday rejected a UN peace proposal aimed at ending his country’s 19-months conflict against the Shiite Huthi rebels and their allies.
Forces loyal to Hadi’s government have been locked since 2014 in deadly battles with the rebels, who seized the capital Sanaa late that year.
The conflict escalated in March 2015 when the Saudi-led coalition launched a military campaign to compel the rebels retreat, after they advanced from the capital including towards the coastal province of Hodeidah.
In the latest deadly strikes in Hodeidah, which the rebels have controlled since late 2014, coalition warplanes hit a rebel-held security compound in the town of Zaidia.
“Sixty people in total were killed and dozens were wounded,” a health official said.
Most of the victims were anti-rebel detainees who were being held among 100 inmates in two cells at the detention centre, he said.
It remains unclear why the coalition would hit a detention centre holding anti-rebel inmates.
Saudi Arabia was also blamed for another air strike at a funeral prayer that killed over 140.
