Saudi-led coalition’s bombing left hospitals overwhelmed with dead and wounded victims
Scores of people have been killed and potentially hundreds have been injured by airstrikes in Yemen, the latest escalation in the Saudi Arabia-led coalition’s war against Houthi rebels in the shattered country.
Targets struck on Friday reportedly included a prison and an airport in the northern city of Sa’ada, various government facilities and a telecommunications building in Hodeidah. Many of the victims were rushed to Al-Gumhourriyeh Hospital in Sa’ada, which received 138 wounded and 70 dead, accordingDoctors Without Borders (MSF) is an aid group.
Al-Gumhourriyeh is so overwhelmed that it can’t accept any more patients, and at least two other hospitals in the city have received large numbers of casualties, MSF said. There are still many bodies at the scene of the most devastating strike, at the prison in Sa’ada.
“It is impossible to know how many people have been killed,” said Ahmed Mahat, MSF’s head of mission in Yemen. “It seems to have been a horrific act of violence.”
Red Cross stated that it provided medical supplies for two hospitals which were overwhelmed by victims. At least three children were reportedly killed in the Hodeidah bombing that knocked down internet access across the country. Online blackouts have reportedly hindered efforts to distribute aid or gather information on the attacks.
According to the Saudi-led coalition, it claimed that they had attacked Hodeidah’s port. “military targets” in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital. The state-owned Saudi Press Agency claims that the strikes took place “in response to the threat of hostile attacks.”
The coalition intensified airstrikes in Yemen earlier this week in response to Houthi drone attacks in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia’s partner in the war.
Houthi spokesman Yahya Sare’e claimed the attacks in Dubai and Abu Dhabi were retaliation for the coalition’s escalating aggression in Yemen. After Friday’s devastating airstrikes, Sare’e signaled another cycle of retaliation, saying “we advise the foreign companies in the Emirates to leave because they invest in an unsafe country, and the rulers of this country continue in their aggression against Yemen.”
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