April 28 (UPI) -- At least 68 African migrants were killed and 47 injured in a U.S. airstrike on a Houthi-run detention center in northwestern Yemen, the rebel group claimed.
The Houthi-run Al Masirah TV news site said the bodies of 35 victims had been recovered from the shelter for African migrants in Saada province following Sunday's attack and that Civil Defense and Red Crescent teams were continuing their efforts at the scene to retrieve casualties from beneath the rubble of what it called a "U.S. crime."
More than 50 injured people were transferred to the Republican Hospital Authority, most of them in a critical condition. Rescue efforts were being hampered "due to the massive destruction" sustained at the facility.
The U.S. military did not immediately comment on the attack, but in a news release issued Sunday night U.S. Central Command said U.S. forces had struck more than 800 targets since March 15 when President Donald Trump ordered an intensification of the air campaign against the Iran-backed Houthis to restore freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.
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CENTCOM said it would not reveal specific details about its operations, past or current or future, in order "to preserve operational security," but insisted that operations were intelligence-led to ensure lethal impacts on the Houthis "while minimizing the risk to civilians."
It said that the actions of two U.S. Carrier Strike Groups had substantially degraded the Houthis' ability to launch attacks on international shipping and U.S. Navy vessels, with ballistic missile launches down by 69% and drone attacks down 55%, as well as destroying the Houthis' strategically key Ras Isa Port fuel terminal.
Elsewhere, the Houthis also alleged U.S. warplanes carried out deadly airstrikes Sunday on a residential neighborhood of the Thaqban area of the capital, Sana'a, killing eight civilians and injuring several others, mostly women and children.
Visiting the scene of the attack, Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed Miftah threatened revenge for the attack, saying the United States should "await a response from Yemen's Armed Forces, tribes, and people."
The International Organization of Migration said significant numbers of migrants arriving in Yemen by boat from the Horn of Africa, trying to get to Saudi Arabia in search of work, face extreme risks, including detention, as they pass through the civil-war-ravaged country.
Almost 60,900 migrants arrived in Yemen in 2024, said the IMO.
The Houthis began attacking international shipping passing through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in November 2023 in support of the Palestinians in Gaza after Israel launched its war against Hamas in response to the Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel.
The Houthi blockade prompted a U.S.-led international maritime mission, Operation Prosperity Guardian, to protect Red Sea shipping and U.S. and U.K.-led coalition air and missile strikes targeting Houthi military facilities and leaders.
