Nine prisoners killed in Saudi strike on Yemen prison

Nine prisoners were killed in a strike on a prison in Al-Hazm, the capital of Yemen’s northern Al-Jawf province, carried out by Saudi Arabia overnight, according to Abdelqader al-Murtada, head of the prisoners’ affairs committee in the government formed by Yemen’s Houthi movement, Ansar Allah.

Saudi forces “struck a prison where a large number of prisoners are being held,” al-Murtada said. “As a result, nine prisoners captured during the latest events were killed.”

Yemen has been embroiled in a conflict between Saudi-backed government forces and the Houthis since August 2014. The situation sharply escalated in early September, when Ansar Allah launched an offensive in the country’s southwest.

At the same time as the ground offensive, the Houthis began carrying out missile and drone attacks on coastal areas along the Red Sea and around the city of Taiz, seeking to cut routes to Mokha and advance toward the strategically important Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

On September 12, Ansar Allah Politburo member Huzam al-Asad told TASS that the Houthis had completed an operation to establish control over areas with access to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in western Yemen.

By Tamilla Hasanova