Aftermath of the strike on a migrant detention facility in Saada (photo via the SABA news agency)
The detention facility appears to be the one that was previously targeted by the US-backed Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.
Originally published in Antiwar.com.
Sixty-eight people were killed by a US airstrike on a detention facility for African migrants in Yemen’s northwestern Saada province, Yemen’s Al Masirah TV has reported.
Another 47 were injured by the US attack, which hit the facility early Monday morning. Footage and photos of the aftermath of the strike show bodies strewn in the rubble and wounded African migrants being treated at a hospital.
A Pentagon official told Reuters that the US military was aware of the reports of civilian casualties. “We are currently conducting our battle-damage assessment and inquiry into those claims,” the official said.
The Pentagon has shared virtually no details about its bombing campaign in Yemen, which US Central Command acknowledged on Sunday, claiming it was withholding information to preserve “operational security.”
The strike on the migrant facility is the second-deadliest US attack on Yemen since President Trump launched his bombing campaign on March 15. On April 17, the US bombed the Ras Isa fuel port in Yemen’s Red Sea province of Hodeidah, killing 80 civilians, mostly workers at the port.
Authorities in Yemen strongly condemned the US attack on the migrant facility as a war crime. “The United States of America did not stop at killing Yemeni citizens and targeting civilian objects in Yemen, but its heinous crimes extended to targeting African migrants who arrived in Yemen in search of safety and stability,” Yemen’s National Committee for Refugee Affairs said, according to the SABA news agency.
“They were housed in a shelter center operating under the knowledge and supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Organization for Migration,” the committee added.
Reuters said that it verified the location of the migrant facility in Saada and that it was the same facility that was targeted by the US-backed Saudi-led coalition in January 2022. According to the Yemen Data Project, the Saudi strike killed 91 civilians.
Many African migrants attempt the journey through Yemen, looking for work in Saudi Arabia. Saudi border guards have been brutal in their efforts to keep migrants out and have been accused of slaughtering hundreds of Africans on the Saudi-Yemen border.
The US bombing campaign in Yemen has taken a huge toll on civilians, but the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, remain undeterred and continue to launch attacks on Israel and US warships in the region. Yemeni air defenses have also gotten better at shooting down US MQ-9 Reaper drones, impeding US surveillance efforts.
US airstrikes also hit residential areas of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on Sunday night, killing at least eight people, including women and children. Yemeni media reported dozens of civilian casualties in the strikes.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said Monday that Yemeni forces responded to the US massacres by launching a drone and missile attack on the US aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and its accompanying warships. “The Yemeni Armed Forces will persist to target and pursue the aircraft carrier and all enemy warships in the Red and Arabian Seas until the aggression against Yemen is halted,” Saree said.
The Houthis have maintained they won’t end attacks on Israel or their blockade on Israeli-linked shipping unless there’s a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territory. But a senior member of Ansar Allah’s political bureau has said the Houthis would stop attacks on US warships if the US stopped bombing Yemen, although there’s no sign the US is considering the offer.
Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.
Anne Venhuizen is an attorney in The Bronx Defenders' Impact Litigation Practice.
Christopher Bruce is Policy Director of the Georgia ACLU.
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