Hundreds of people in Yemen were either wounded or killed on Friday after Saudi-led airstrikes, the Associated Press reported.
At least 70 people were killed while over 100 were injured in the attack, Houthi rebels and rescuers told the AP. An estimate released by Doctors Without Borders placed the number of people wounded at “around 200” people.
The strike, which hit a rebel-run detention facility, was part of an intensifying aerial campaign by the Saudi-led coalition, which stepped up after the rebels, who are backed by Iran, claimed an attack on the United Arab Emirates on Monday, the AP reported. Yemen‘s capital, Sanaa, which has been held by the rebels since 2014, was also struck.
The number of dead is expected to rise as many of the injured are seriously wounded, the Houthi health minister, Taha al-Motawakel, told the AP. An International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson in Yemen expressed a similar sentiment, noting that there was no breakdown for the number killed and injured.
Another airstrike in the port city of Hodeida on Friday took down Yemen’s internet, hitting a telecommunications center that’s vital to its functions, the AP reported. The country faces “a nation-scale collapse of internet connectivity,” NetBlocks said after the strike.
“From what I hear from my colleague in Saada, there are many bodies still at the scene of the airstrike, many missing people,” Ahmed Mahat, the organization’s head of mission in Yemen, told the AP.
“The initial casualties report from Saada is horrifying,” Gillian Moyes, Save the Children’s country director in Yemen, told the AP. “Migrants seeking better lives for themselves and their families, Yemeni civilians injured by the dozens, is a picture we never hoped to wake up to in Yemen.”
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org. Read the full story at the Daily Caller News Foundation