Airstrikes kill 35 in Yemen factory

SANAA, Yemen – Saudi-led coalition warplanes bombed Shiite rebel positions Wednesday across Yemen as a missile strike on a dairy factory killed 35 workers, authorities said, and both sides disputed who fired on it.

Wednesday’s strikes marked a week of airstrikes by the Saudi-led campaign, which aims to weaken the Shiite rebels known as Houthis and forces allied with them, largely fighters loyal to Yemen’s deposed leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Since their advance began last year, the Houthis have overrun Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and several provinces, forcing President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee the country.

In a surprise attack, al-Qaida militants stormed the center of the city of al-Mukalla, the capital of the southeastern province of Hadramawt, still controlled by pro-Hadi forces.

The militants assaulted the central prison in the city, with rocket propelled grenades, and freed an unknown number of prisoners, local residents and a security official said. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it is not clear if Khalid Batarfi, an al-Qaida operative arrested over a year ago, was among those freed.

The crumbling of Hadi’s government has been a concern and is a blow to Washington’s counterterrorism strategy against al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen, considered to be the most powerful in the terrorist network. Before the airstrikes, about 100 U.S. military advisers withdrew from the al-Annad air base where they had been leading a drone campaign against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.

The official said the militants proceeded to attack the branch of the Yemeni central bank in al-Mukalla, and clashes were ongoing.

The presence of al-Qaida militants in Yemen only adds to the explosive mix in Yemen, particularly as they have emerged as a powerful force against the rebels.

Wednesday’s airstrikes targeted rebel-controlled army camps in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida and anti-aircraft guns there returned fire. In the firefight, missiles hit warehouses belonging to a factory that makes dairy products.

Parts of the dairy’s main building collapsed with workers still inside, five eyewitnesses and officials said. At least 35 workers died in the collapse, many of them crushed to death or burned alive, according to the medical center in Hodeida.

The coalition blamed the Houthis for the attack, while Houthi-run media blamed the coalition.