Death toll in Yemen prison airstrike rises to 23 with 7 still missing, Houthis say

CAIRO (AP) — Rescuers dug through the rubble of a Houthi-run prison that was hit in an airstrike in northern Yemen earlier this week, even as the Saudi-led coalition renewed its attacks on the rebel areas Wednesday. Rescuers recovered four bodies, raising the death toll at the prison to 23 people, the Houthis said.

The prison collapsed on Monday after it was hit when the coalition targeted the strategic city of Hazm in the northern Jawf province, which in turn prompted the Houthis to launch a wave of missile and drone strikes on southern Saudi Arabia that wounded 73.

The flare-up was a major escalation in renewed fighting between an important U.S. ally and the Iranian proxy group , further destabilizing a region rocked by nearly three years of conflict, most recently the Iranian-American war that delivered a blow to the global economy.

Hassan Saboula, director of the civil defense agency in Jawf, said a child was among the dead and rescue teams were searching for seven people missing.

The identities of those killed were yet to be determined, al-Masirah satellite news channel cited Saboula as saying. The strike also wounded at least seven people, including a woman who was visiting her husband, said Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry.

Meanwhile, the coalition launched air strikes on Houthi military facilities in the provinces of Marib and Jawf early Wednesday.

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. A Saudi-led coalition entered the Yemen war the following year in an attempt to restore the government. The war has killed at least 150,000 people, according to U.N. estimates, and at times pushed the country to the brink of famine.

Escalation between the rebels and the coalition started when the Houthis attempted in July to fly a plane from Tehran to Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, challenging a decade-long air and naval blockade by the coalition, which struck the runway of the Yemeni airport, preventing the landing of the flight.

Houthis have since targeted Saudi Arabia and attacked Saudi shipping in the Red Sea. On Tuesday, they hit several Saudi oil facilities and utilities and some operations have since been temporarily suspended, according to the Saudi Energy Ministry.

The rebels have been attacking Saudi-allied government forces on multiple fronts in Yemen. However, government forces turned the tide earlier this month, striking Houthi positions across Yemen’s west coast on the Red Sea.

The outbreak of violence has killed at least 194 people and wounded over 880 others between Aug. 23 and Sep. 5, according to the World Health Organization. It also displaced more than 21,000 people, the WHO said. It has also shattered a four-year truce that had largely ceased fighting in the civil war.