SANAA, April 28– The death toll from Monday’s U.S. airstrikes on a detention center in northern Yemen has risen to 68, with 47 injured, reported the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV.
The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, said all the victims are illegal African migrants held in the detention center in Saada, the capital city of the namesake Saada province, in northern Yemen.
The television said the 68 bodies were recovered from the rubble after civil defense teams put out the fire that resulted from the U.S. airstrikes.
The injured were taken to hospitals. “One of the American missiles that hit the detention center did not explode. The relevant authorities are handling the object with extreme caution,” the Houthi television said.
“The migrants in this center are under the supervision of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the International Committee of the Red Cross, and targeting this center constitutes a full-fledged war crime,” the Houthi group said in a statement on the television channel.
“The American administration bears full responsibility for the heinous crime against African immigrants,” the Houthis said. According to the IOM, Yemen remains a transit country for thousands of migrants traveling between the Horn of Africa and Saudi Arabia despite years of civil war in the country.
Tensions between the Houthi group and the U.S. military have sharply risen since Washington resumed airstrikes on Houthi positions in Yemen on March 15. The strikes were intended to deter the Houthis from targeting Israel and U.S. ships in the Red and Arabian Seas. (Xinhua)
