U.S. Strikes Kill Dozens of Migrants in Yemen
Until the illegal war ends, there will be many more civilians killed by U.S. strikes like this. The bombing must stop.
U.S. forces reportedly bombed a prison in Yemen in a series of strikes that killed at least 68 people:
Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Monday alleged a U.S. airstrike hit a prison holding African migrants, killing at least 68 people and wounding 47 others. The U.S. military did not acknowledge carrying out the strike.
If true, this is one of the worst attacks on civilians in Yemen since the U.S. intensified its bombing campaign six weeks ago. It also calls to mind a Saudi coalition air strike three years ago that struck a prison full of African migrants. Both this strike and the Saudi attack in 2022 occurred in Saada province. It appears that the U.S. bombed the same facility. Reuters reports:
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 location matched that of a migrant centre that had also been hit in a previous Saudi-led airstrike in 2022.
Until the illegal war ends, there will be many more civilians killed by U.S. strikes like this. The bombing must stop.
The strike on the migrants comes a little over a week after the U.S. bombed a fuel port on the western coast of Yemen and killed dozens of people, including many dock workers, truck drivers, and paramedics. As Trump’s illegal war has continued, U.S. strikes have been harming and killing civilians in increasing numbers. These strikes not only provide ready-made propaganda to the Houthis, but they also show the recklessness of the U.S. bombing campaign.
The AP report says that the U.S. military didn’t acknowledge carrying out the strike, but then the military isn’t saying much of anything about the air war it has been waging in Yemen. The administration is keeping its illegal war under wraps as much as possible in the hopes that no one here at home will notice what they are doing. Centcom takes pride in keeping the public in the dark about the illegal military campaign, saying, “We are very deliberate in our operational approach, but will not reveal specifics about what we’ve done or what we will do.”
There is obviously no justification for attacking a building full of migrants. This is a serious war crime, and it needs to be treated as such. Unfortunately, there is no reason to expect an appropriate response from the Department of Defense under the leadership of war criminal cheerleader Pete Hegseth.
African migrants have been making the dangerous journey to and through Yemen for many years. Many have been fleeing conflict and repression in the Horn of Africa only to be caught up in another war in Yemen. Imagine how terrible conditions must have been for them to risk going through a country suffering from prolonged war and starvation. Then they are detained by the Houthis, and as if that weren’t bad enough they are blown up by an American air strike as part of a war that has nothing to do with them.
Members of Congress should demand answers about the attack to determine why these strikes were launched when this facility was known to house migrants. That was known years ago when the Saudis first attacked the same location. Then what our representatives really need to do is challenge the president’s abuse of war powers and force an end to the bombing campaign.