‘Full-fledged war crime’: Nearly 70 killed in US airstrike on migrant detention center in Yemen’s Sa’ada

Nearly 70 inmates were killed and more than 50 others wounded in an US airstrike on Sa’ada governorate’s detention center in Yemen, according to reports.

Al-Masirah news network reported on Monday that the airstrikes targeted one of the detention centers designated for African migrants within the facility located in the city. The center held approximately 115 African inmates, but the number of casualties is still unclear.

Civil defense and rescue teams have been working since dawn to extinguish fires and rescue the victims, many of whom are still under rubble caused by the strikes.

Ambulance teams are also trying to recover and transport the wounded to the city’s overcrowded hospitals.

Initial footage shows a massacre with dozens of bodies and scattered body parts as rescue teams continue to retrieve bodies.

According to local authorities, one of the US missiles failed to explode near the detention center.

Yemen’s Interior Ministry condemned the US attack, saying that airstrike by American forces on the immigration detention center is a full-fledged war crime and a clear violation of all international humanitarian law.

According to Al-Masirah, at least 68 inmates were killed in the airstrike. The death toll is likely to rise as rescue teams remove the bodies of the inmates trapped under the rubble.

The raid on the detention center is part of the escalation in airstrikes launched by the US on Sa’ada governorate in the late hours of last night.

Mohammed Abdulsalam, the head of Yemen’s National Delegation, denounced the attack, saying that the US committed a “brutal crime” by bombing a migrant shelter in Sa’adah.

“US brutality cannot hide its military failure in Yemen,” he said.

Abdulsalam further said that international silence encourages US bloodshed against civilians under false military claims.

Yemen’s National Committee for Refugee Affairs also condemned the deadly assault. It said the United States’ crimes have extended from killing Yemenis to targeting African migrants.

“We call on international and local organizations to condemn the massacre and document the crime,” it added.

In addition to the detention center, the US military targeted the Kitaf district with three raids and the city’s surroundings with two.

Yemeni Interior Ministry has said the US airstrike on a center where 115 migrants were present, all of African nationalities, was deliberate.

“The detention center for African migrants in Sa’ada was under the supervision of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC),” the ministry said.

“The attack by American forces on the immigration detention center is a full-fledged war crime and a clear violation of all international humanitarian laws and conventions,” it added.

The US military’s Central Command has not made any comments regarding its attack on the detention center.

“To preserve operational security, we have intentionally limited disclosing details of our ongoing or future operations … We are very deliberate in our operational approach, but will not reveal specifics about what we’ve done or what we will do,” it said.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk