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Saudi-led coalition says unaware prisoners held at Yemen site
RIYADH, Sept 2, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The Saudi-led military coalition fighting
Yemen’s Huthi rebels said Monday it was unaware that prisoners were held at a
facility it targeted with deadly air strikes.
“The coalition was never informed… about the location,” spokesman Turki
al-Maliki told a press conference, a day after the strike which the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it feared had left some
130 detainees dead.
“The Huthis bear full responsibility for making this a location for Yemeni
citizens who have been forcibly disappeared,” he added.
Maliki reiterated the coalition’s stance that the site in the city of
Dhamar was used by the rebels to store drones and air defence systems.
“The (facility) was not on the ‘no strike list’ of sites in the city of
Dhamar,” he said. “Some reports have quoted the ICRC as saying it has gone to
the site a number of times. The coalition has never been informed… about
the location.”
The Saudi-led military coalition intervened in 2015 to support the
government after the Iran-aligned Huthis swept out of their northern
stronghold to seize Sanaa and much of Yemen — the Arab world’s poorest
nation.
Fighting since then has already claimed tens of thousands of lives and
sparked what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
BSS/AFP/RY/20:30 hrs