The United Nations Has Condemned A Deadly Air Strike On A Yemeni Prison

The United Nations has criticized a Yemeni detention center air strike that killed more than 70 people.

On Friday, a facility in Saada, a stronghold of the Houthi rebel organization in northwestern Yemen, was attacked.

The "escalation must cease," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen denied carrying out the air strike in a statement on Saturday.

The coalition further claimed that the site was not on a UN-approved list of targets to avoid, and that the Red Cross had not notified it.

Since 2015, Saudi-led coalition forces have been fighting Houthi insurgents. As a direct result of the war, tens of thousands of civilians have been killed or injured, including over 10,000 children.

Millions have been displaced, and a large portion of the population is on the verge of starvation.

Rescue workers were still hauling dead out of the rubble hours after the air hit, and prospects of finding survivors are diminishing, according to BBC Middle East correspondent Anna Foster.

The exact number of those who died is unknown. At least 70 people have been killed, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), with the figure anticipated to grow.

Images from the area showed men removing debris with their hands and wounded at a local hospital, according to Houthi-run media. According to MSF, one hospital has received almost 200 casualties.

"Many dead are still at the scene of the air strike, and many people are missing," MSF leader in Yemen Ahmed Mahat told the AFP news agency. "It's impossible to estimate how many individuals have died." It appears to be a heinous act of brutality.

De-escalation was also advocated for by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.