Saudi-led airstrikes kill 60 prisoners in Yemen

At least 60 prisoners were killed and 38 others injured when Saudi-led air strikes hit a prison in Yemeni Red Sea port city of al-Hodayda on Sunday, authorities said.

The targeted prison, located in al-Zaydiya district of al-Hodayda, was bombed to the ground in a series of air strikes that began at dawn and lasted hours, Xinhua news agency reported.

Rescue teams were still searching for survivors at the site. The health office of al-Hodayda sent an emergency call to people to donate blood to save the injured.

It was the latest in a series of air strikes that targeted civilians in Yemen since the war began in March last year.

On Saturday, the coalition warplanes killed a total of 27 civilians, mostly children and women, in three Yemeni provinces of Saada, Marib and Taiz, according to residents, medics and local officials.

Earlier this month, the air strikes hit a funeral hall in the capital Sanaa, killing 140 mourners, including children, and wounded over 600 others.

Saudi Arabia intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March last year to restore its ally President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to power, after Houthis and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh fought a revolution against "Hadi government corruption" and drove Hadi with his cabinet out of power to flee into exile.

The Saudi-led coalition has ever since failed to restore Hadi or recapture northern provinces from the allied Houthi and Saleh forces which have also controlled the capital Sanaa.

The Saudi-led air strikes and ground combat have killed over 10,000 Yemenis, mostly children and women, and forced more than two million to flee their homes.

--IANS

sm/vt