The Saudi-led coalition bombed Hodeidah, a town in western Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels, on the night of Thursday January 20 to Friday January 21, destroying a telecommunications center and causing an internet blackout throughout the country, an NGO said on Friday.
The pro-government coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels said it was aiming for a ” hub of piracy and organized crime in this vital port city for the country at war.
The NetBlocks organization, which specializes in monitoring the internet around the world, reported a ” collapse of internet connections in the country after the bombings. AFP correspondents in Hodeidah and Sanaa confirmed the outage.
For its part, the Saudi state news agency said the coalition had carried out ” targeted airstrikes to destroy Houthi militia action capabilities in Hodeidah “.
⚠️ Confirmed: #Yemen is in the midst of a nation-scale Internet blackout following airstrike on telecom building in #Hudaydah; real-time network data show collapse of connectivity on leading provider; ongoing incident ? pic.twitter.com/ZM77WdUpwm
—NetBlocks (@netblocks) January 21, 2022
The Houthis said people were killed in the strike, but their statement could not immediately be confirmed. An AFP correspondent in Hodeidah described a large-scale attack.
This comes after Houthi rebels hijacked a United Arab Emirates-flagged ship in the Red Sea, after which the coalition warned it would bomb rebel-held ports.
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On Monday, January 17, rebels claimed responsibility for a drone and missile attack that hit oil installations and the airport in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, killing three people and injuring six. The Emirates are members of the Saudi-led coalition.
Deaths in a strike against a prison in the hands of the rebels
This Friday, an airstrike targeting a prison in the town of Saada, stronghold of the Houthi rebels in northern Yemen, left several dead and injured, the insurgents said on Friday.
More than 100 people were killed in the attack, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said, adding that the toll continued to rise. Three children and more than 60 adults seem to have been killed in these airstrikes, reports for its part the humanitarian organization Save The Children, without providing details.
The attack was not immediately claimed, but the coalition regularly hits the insurgents. The Houthis announced the attack on their Al-Massirah TV channel and broadcast footage showing buildings blown up with rescue teams pulling bodies from the rubble, some mutilated.
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” A detention center has been targeted in Saada and a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is on the ground to determine the number of dead and injured Bashir Omar, ICRC spokesman in Yemen, told AFP.
(and with agencies)