Saudi-led airstrikes kill 60 prisoners in Yemen Red Sea city

At least 60 prisoners were killed and 38 others injured when Saudi-led airstrikes hit a prison in Yemeni Res Sea port city of al-Hodayda on Sunday morning, medics, residents and Houthi-controlled state Saba news agency said.

The targeted prison, located in al-Zaydiya district of al-Hodayda, was bombed to the ground in a series of airstrikes that began at dawn and lasted hours, said the source.

Medics told Xinhua that the death toll reached to 60 and 38 injured. Saba news agency later confirmed the toll on its Arabic and English website.

Rescue teams were still searching on the site. Meanwhile, the Health Office of AL-Hodayda sent an emergency call to people to donate blood to save the injured.

It was the latest in a series of airstrikes that targeted civilians in Yemen since the war began in March last year.

On Saturday, the coalition warplanes killed a total of 27 civilians, mostly children and women, in three Yemeni provinces of Saada, Marib and Taiz, according to residents, medics and local officials.

Earlier this month, the airstrikes hit a funeral hall in the capital Sanaa, killing 140 mourners, including children, and wounded over 600 others.

Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen conflict in March last year to restore its ally President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to power, after Houthis and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh fought a revolution against "Hadi government corruption" and drove Hadi with his cabinet to flee into exile.

The Saudi-led coalition has ever since failed to restore Hadi or recapture northern provinces from the allied Houthi and Saleh forces which has also controlled the capital Sanaa.

The Saudi-led airstrikes and ground combat have killed over 10,000 Yemenis, mostly children and women, and forced more than two million to flee their homes.

The latest round of peace efforts by the United Nations appeared to fail to end the 19-month long war in Yemen after apparently both rival, Houthis and their foe Hadi, rejected latest UN peace plan presented by UN Yemen envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed last week. Endit