Houthis accuse Saudi Arabia of a strike on a prison in northern Yemen as tensions escalate

CAIRO (AP) — Houthi rebels in Yemen accused Saudi Arabia of striking a prison on Monday in the country's north 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 killed a child and left 35 prisoners and a woman who was visiting her husband trapped under the rubble, the prison’s warden told the Houthi al-Masirah news channel. Two people were also wounded.

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.

Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel aired 46 seconds of footage it says shows the aftermath of Monday's strike: a collapsed building, with structures crumbled into rubble and broken slabs scattered across the ground.

Several people, including what appeared to be rescue teams, were seen moving carefully across the debris, searching through the wreckage.

Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree accused Saudi Arabia of launching airstrikes and “committing massacres” in Jawf, as well as deploying a reconnaissance drone and supplying mercenaries with various weaponry.

“The ongoing Saudi aggression against Yemen will not go unanswered or unpunished,” he said.

There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia’s media ministry.

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 Houthi claim came as forces of the internationally recognized government advanced across multiple fronts in Yemen, including in Jawf, Bayda, Dahle, and Marib provinces.

Strikes on prisons haven’t been uncommon during the war.

In 2022, a strike by the Saudi-led coalition hit a detention facility in the northern province of Saada, killing at least 87 prisoners and wounding about 266 others. Another strike in Sep. 2019 hit a Houthi-run detention facility in southwestern Dhamar province, killing over 100 people and wounding dozens.

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.