Yemen prison airstrike death toll rises as Houthi-Saudi fighting flares

Rescuers dug through the rubble of a Houthi-run prison that was hit in an airstrike in northern Yemen earlier this week, even as the Saudi-led coalition renewed its attacks on the rebel areas on Wednesday. Rescuers recovered four bodies, raising the death toll at the prison to 23 persons, the Houthis said.

The prison collapsed on Monday after it was hit when the coalition targeted the strategic city of Hazm in the northern Jawf province, which in turn prompted the Houthis to launch a wave of missile and drone strikes on southern Saudi Arabia that wounded 73.

The flare-up was a major escalation in renewed fighting between an important US ally and the Iranian proxy group, further destabilising a region rocked by nearly three years of conflict, most recently the Iranian-American war that delivered a blow to the global economy.