The death toll from an airstrike on a Houthi-run prison in northern Yemen has risen to 23, with seven people still missing, Houthi authorities said on Wednesday.The Saudi-led coalition renewed airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas on Wednesday, as fighting between the two sides intensified.The Houthis had accused Saudi Arabia of striking the Central Corrective Facility in al-Jawf province on Monday. The prison, in Hazm near the Saudi border, collapsed, as a result of the attack.Hassan Saboula, director of the civil defence agency in Jawf, said a child was among those killed and that rescue teams were searching for seven people still missing. The identities of those killed had not yet been established, Saboula said, according to the Houthi-run al-Masirah satellite news channel.The strike also wounded at least seven people, including a woman who was visiting her husband, Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry, said.The airstrike was followed by a wave of Houthi missile and drone attacks on southern Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. Saudi authorities said the attacks targeted energy facilities and utilities and wounded 73 people.According to an energy ministry source quoted by the Saudi Press Agency, “several energy sector facilities and installations in the southern region of the kingdom were targeted this morning”.“The attacks caused fires at several locations, leading to a temporary halt in some operations” as well as several injuries, the source was quoted as saying.Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognised government into exile in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year. The conflict has killed at least 150,000 people, according to UN estimates.The Houthis have recently stepped up attacks targeting Saudi Arabia, including strikes on Saudi-linked shipping in the Red Sea.The latest violence has killed at least 194 people and wounded more than 880 between Aug. 23 and Sept. 5, the World Health Organization said, while more than 21,000 people have been displaced. The escalation has also shattered a four-year truce.
