Airstrike on Prison Kills at Least 70

The health minister in the rebel government set up by Yemen’s Houthi rebels says an airstrike on a rebel-run detention facility in the country's north early on Friday killed at least 70 detainees. The minister, Taha al-Motawakel, told the AP in the rebel-held Yemeni capital of Sanaa that he expects the number of those killed to rise since many of the wounded are seriously hurt. The strike was part of an intensified aerial campaign by the Saudi-led coalition that has waged war on the Iran-backed rebels since 2015. The strikes were stepped up after the rebels claimed responsibility for an attack that hit the United Arab Emirates earlier this week. Basheer Omar, an International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson, said rescuers are still going through the prison in Saada.

The Red Cross had moved some of the wounded to facilities elsewhere, he said. Doctors Without Borders put the number of wounded alone at around 200. Another airstrike in the port city of Hodeida earlier Friday apparently took Yemen entirely off the internet. Yemen faces "a nation-scale collapse of internet connectivity" after an airstrike on a telecommunications building, NetBlocks said. The Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthi rebels acknowledged carrying out "accurate airstrikes to destroy the capabilities of the militia" around Hodeida's port. The coalition did not immediately acknowledge the strike in Saada.

(More Yemen stories.)