The Saudi-led coalition bombed the Yemeni rebel-held city of Hodeida, destroying a telecommunications center that caused the country to run out of internet, an organization and AFP journalists verified this Friday.
The global internet watchdog organization NetBlocks recorded a “cut of the internet connection throughout the country” after the bombing.
AFP correspondents in the cities of Hodeida and Sanaa confirmed this information.
The pro-government coalition fighting the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels declared that the attack was aimed at a nucleus of “piracy and organized crime” in this port city.
On the other hand, the Saudi public press agency explained that the coalition had carried out “bombing to neutralize the Houthi militia in Hodeida.”
The Houthis indicated that the attack caused deaths, but this is information that has not yet been confirmed. An AFP correspondent in Hodeida said it had been a major action.
An airstrike on a prison in the city of Saada, a stronghold of Houthi rebels in northern Yemen, has left several dead and wounded, insurgents and the Red Cross said on Friday.
“A detention center was attacked 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 wounded,” Bashir Omar, a spokesman for that institution in Yemen, told AFP.
The Iranian-backed insurgents released a video showing shelled buildings and rescue workers pulling bodies from the rubble.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels did not claim responsibility for the attack on Saada.
This bombardment comes days after the rebels captured a ship with the flag of the United Arab Emirates in the Red Sea, a fact that provoked attacks against ports controlled by the Houthis.
Last Monday, the rebels claimed responsibility for a drone and missile attack on oil facilities at the airport in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates, in which three people were killed and six were injured.
The Emirates is a member of the Saudi-led coalition.
