TEHRAN – US airstrikes have killed and injured Yemen’s African immigrant scores, marking the latest civilian casualties in American invasions.
According to officials at the Yemeni civil defense, the attack on the detention centre in Sadah state killed at least 68 African migrants, injured 47, and the death toll was expected to rise.
The attack is one of the deadliest things to date in a six-week strengthened US airstrike. Local hospitals reported being overwhelmed by the victims after the strike.
The Yemeni Home Ministry confirmed that the shelter housed 115 migrants of various African nationalities and was run under the supervision of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Red Cross.
In a strongly verbal statement, the ministry denounced the attack as a “full war crime” and a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law,” and held the US government fully accountable for stating it was a “heinous crime against innocent civilians.”
The US administration committed “brutal crimes” by bombing the Sada Centre, which housed more than 100 undocumented African immigrants, Ansalala spokesman Mohammed Abdulsurlam said in a social media post.
The massacre follows a series of US airstrikes in Yemen. This includes four consecutive attacks in the previous districts of Al Jof Province.
The Yemeni Ministry of Health also reported that 12 civilians were killed or injured two days ago, including two women and three children, who were killed or injured in another US strike near the capital Sanaa.
Local officials described the Saada attack as yet another example of what was called “American crime and recklessness” in “supporting the Zionist regime.” Rescue operations continued as emergency workers struggled to retrieve the victim from the ware rub.
The targeted shelter reportedly was used as a holding centre for African immigrants who were trying to travel to Yemen.
Humanitarian organizations have repeatedly warned of the vulnerability of migrant groups in Yemen’s war zone.