The death toll in the September 7 Saudi strike on a prison in Yemen’s northern al-Jawf province has risen to 23 as rescue workers have pulled more bodies out of the rubble, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
Initial reports said that at least seven people, including a child, were killed by the airstrike, but the prison building collapsed in the attack, and Yemeni officials stressed that the toll was preliminary as more work needed to be done to recover bodies.
Also on Wednesday, Ansar Allah military spokesman Yahya Saree said that the strike was carried out by a US-made Saudi F-15SA fighter jet that took off from King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, southwest Saudi Arabia.
“The Saudi enemy’s attempts to deny its crimes and aggression against our country will not absolve it of the consequences of this aggression and criminality, no matter how hard it tries to cover it up,” Saree wrote on Telegram, as the Saudis haven’t taken responsibility for the strike.
Yemen’s Mine Action Center also reported that its experts documented bomb fragments at the site and determined that the strike was carried out with a 2,000-pound US-made satellite-guided GBU-31 JDAM bomb. The group said that it also found that the same bomb was likely used in a strike on a home in Yemen’s al-Bayda province on September 6.
Ansar Allah responded to the Saudi strikes on Yemen on Tuesday by launching extensive missile and drone attacks on mainly oil infrastructure in southwestern Saudi Arabia, which wounded 73 civilians, according to Saudi officials. Saudi Arabia again launched heavy airstrikes on Yemen on Wednesday, with Saree reporting 54 airstrikes targeting the provinces of al-Jawf, Marib, Taiz, Hodeidah, Saada, and al-Bayda.
Saree said the strikes were also carried out by F-15SA fighter jets, though he noted a French-made Typhoon jet launched strikes on al-Jawda. “These airstrikes and the ongoing aggression against our country will not go unanswered and unpunished, God willing. The aggressor will face the consequences,” Saree said. The Saudi-led coalition reported that more Houthi attacks targeted southwest Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, and heavy fighting between Ansar Allah and Saudi-backed forces continues on the ground in Yemen.
