Yemen’s Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, said on Monday that a Saudi airstrike hit a prison in northern Yemen’s al-Jawf province, killing at least seven people, including a child, as the war in the country continues to escalate.
Footage from Yemen’s Al Masirah TV shows the aftermath of the strike on the Central Corrective Facility in the city of Hazm and the body of the child who was killed. The Ansar Allah-led Yemeni Health Ministry said the dead included inmates and a child who was visiting the prison, and that another seven people, including a female visitor, were wounded in the attack.
Airstrikes were also reported in the provinces of al-Bayda, Marib, and Taiz, where much of the recent ground fighting has taken place. So far, Saudi Arabia hasn’t taken credit for the strikes. Sources within the Saudi-backed government, whose leadership is based in Riyadh, claimed “Yemeni government” warplanes carried out airstrikes, but the government hasn’t had a real air force since Ansar Allah took control of the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in 2014.
Saudi airstrikes that hit the Sanaa International Airport on July 13, 2026, which reignited the war in Yemen, were initially reported by Western media as “Yemeni government” strikes, but US officials subsequently told Axios that Saudi Arabia carried out the attack after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman got a green light from President Trump to escalate against Ansar Allah.
Saudi Arabia’s air operations in Yemen are very reliant on US support, as they require US-provided intelligence, maintenance for US-made warplanes, and the use of US-made bombs. The US backed a brutal Saudi/UAE-led war in Yemen, which killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis, from 2015 until a ceasefire was reached in 2022.
Also on Monday, Ansar Allah military spokesman Yahya Saree said that Houthi-led Yemeni forces downed multiple Saudi-operated drones in northern Yemen over the past day, and he vowed there would be a response to the Saudi strike against the prison. Ansar Allah also announced attacks that it claimed hit Saudi weapons shipments inside Yemen.
AFP reported on Sunday that heavy fighting in southwestern Yemen since Thursday has killed over 300 people, including Ansar Allah fighters, Saudi-backed Yemeni government militants, and civilians. Ansar Allah appears to be pushing toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
