SAADA, Yemen (Reuters) – Three children and around 60 adults were killed in airstrikes in Yemen on Friday, the NGO Save the Children said, as the Saudi-led coalition steps up operations against areas controlled by Houthi rebels.
The three children were killed when missiles hit the western port city of Hodeidah, the NGO said.
According to a witness interviewed by Reuters, an airstrike also hit a prison in the province of Saada, in the north of the country, killing several people including African migrants.
According to Houthi-controlled Yemeni TV channel Al Masirah, dozens of people were killed and injured in the attack. The channel also showed images of men trying to clear the rubble to reach people trapped under the rubble, as well as injured people at al-Djamhouri hospital in Saada.
No precise assessment has yet been announced from official sources.
The Saudi-led military coalition that has intervened in Yemen since 2015 said on Friday the report would be fully investigated.
“We take this report very seriously and it will be thoroughly investigated, like all reports of this nature, through an independent process approved by the international community. While this investigation is ongoing, it would be inappropriate to make other comments,” said Saudi coalition spokesman Tourki al-Malki.
The Saudi-led coalition has stepped up its airstrikes on Houthi military targets, after the Iran-backed Shia movement carried out an unprecedented assault on the alliance member country United Arab Emirates on Monday, drawn from missiles and sent drones against Saudi cities.
The UN Security Council on Friday condemned in a statement the attack on the United Arab Emirates and other sites in Saudi Arabia, stressing “the need to hold accountable the perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism and bring them to justice”.
Internet was blacked out across Yemen on Friday (except for the southern city of Aden), a blackout attributed by Houthi media to a Saudi coalition raid on a telecommunications facility in the province of Hodeidah.
On Thursday, the coalition reported operations targeting “Houthi military capabilities” in Hodeidah, ballistic missile launching platforms in central Al-Baida province, and military targets in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, under Houthi control.
The conflict, in which the coalition has intervened since March 2015, has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions more and pushed Yemen to the brink of famine.
“The coalition is committed to respecting international law and proportionate response in all its military operations,” said UAE Ambassador to the United Nations Lana Nousseibeh.
The United Nations envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, for his part, expressed on Friday his deep concern over the military escalation.
(Reporting by Reuters Yemen bureau, writing by Ghaida Ghantous; French version Diana Mandiá, editing by Sophie Louet and Jean-Stéphane Brosse)