Suspected US airstrike hits Yemen migrant center; Houthi TV says 68 killed

Corpses covered in dust and debris were scattered in the wreckage of a detention center for African migrants in Yemen, after what Houthi-controlled television described on Monday as a US airstrike that killed 68 people.

The attack was one of the deadliest so far in six weeks of intensified US airstrikes against the Houthis, an Iran-aligned group that controls northern Yemen and has struck shipping in the Red Sea in what it says is solidarity with the Palestinians.

The US military did not immediately respond requesting comment on the strike. The military has said it will not give detailed information about targets of its airstrikes for reasons of operational security.

The American administration had committed a “brutal crime” by bombing the Saada detention center which held more than 100 undocumented African migrants,

Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam described the attack as a “brutal crime” in a post on X.

The group vowed to continue its attacks on Red Sea shipping in a statement from its military spokesman Yahya Saree.

Reuters was able to verify the location and timing of the aftermath video through visible landmarks, such as a warehouse-like building with a shredded corrugated roof; satellite images of the same location the previous day had shown the roof intact.

The deadliest US strike on Yemen so far came this month with an attack on a fuel terminal on the Red Sea that killed at least 74 people.

Rights advocates have raised concerns about civilian killings. Three Democratic senators wrote to Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth on Thursday demanding an accounting for loss of civilian lives.