Saudis step up bombing raids

A Saudi-led coalition air strike hit a prison run by Yemen’s Houthi rebels yesterday, killing at least 70 prisoners and wounding dozens, a rebel minister said, as part of an intense offensive that knocked the Arab world’s poorest country off the internet.

The attack came after the Iranbacked Houthis claimed a drone and missile attack on the United Arab Emirates’ capital earlier this week – a major escalation in the conflict in Yemen, where the Saudi-led coalition, backed by the UAE, has battled the rebels since 2015.

A Saudi air strike in the port city of Hodeida hit a telecommunications centre that is key to Yemen’s connection to the internet. Air strikes also hit near the capital, Sanaa, which has been held by the Houthis since late 2014.

The escalation was the most intense since the 2018 fighting for Hodeida, and came after a year of United States and United Nations efforts failed to bring the two sides to the negotiating table.

Save the Children said the prison in the northern city of Saada held detained migrants. ‘‘Migrants seeking better lives ... Yemeni civilians injured by the dozens is a picture we never hoped to wake up to in Yemen,’’ said Gillian Moyes, Save the Children’s director in Yemen.

The Saudi-led coalition has frequently attacked civilian locations during the war, now in its eight year.

The coalition called Hodeida a hub for piracy and Iranian arms smuggling to back the Houthis. Iran has denied arming the Houthis, though UN experts, independent analysts and Western nations point to evidence showing Tehran’s link to the weapons.

The Saudi-led coalition entered Yemen’s civil war in 2015 to try to restore the country’s internationally recognised government, ousted by the Houthis the year before. The conflict has turned into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

There has been international criticism of Saudi air strikes that have killed hundreds of civilians and targeted the country’s infrastructure. The Houthis, meanwhile, have used child soldiers and have indiscriminately laid landmines across the country. Some 130,000 people, including over 13,000 civilians, have been killed.