Group says hundreds tortured in secret prisons in Yemen

A Yemeni rights group on Tuesday accused both sides in the country’s civil war of arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances and torture of hundreds of people in the past four years in unofficial detention centers across war-torn Yemen.

The Mwatana Organization for Human Rights said it documented over 1,600 cases of arbitrary detentions, 770 cases of forced disappearances, 344 cases of torture and at least 66 deaths in secret prisons run by the warring sides since April 2016.

The group released a 87-page report identifying at least 11 unofficial detention centers across Yemen, where “torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment are particularly prevalent.”

FILE - In this July 29, 2018 file photo, Anas al-Sarrari, a 26-year-old activist who said he was left paralyzed by torture by Yemen's Houthi rebels in a prison, sits in his wheelchair in his home in Marib, Yemen. On Tuesday, June 30, 2020, the Yemeni rights group, Mwatana Organization for Human Rights, accused both sides in the country's civil war of arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances and torture of hundreds of people in the past four years in unofficial detention centers across war-torn Yemen. The organization says it documented over 1,600 cases of arbitrary detentions, 770 cases of forced disappearances, 344 cases of torture and at least 66 deaths in secret prisons run by the warring sides since April 2016. (AP PhotoNariman El-Mofty, File)

“The scale and severity of abuse ... has had significant societal impact,” it said. Many of the secret sites held people for lengthy periods, with the detainees’ families not knowing where their relatives were held until after their release or transfer to another detention, the group said.

Yemen’s conflicted erupted late in 2014 when Iran-backed Houthi rebels swept across much of the north and seized the capital, Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi into exile. The following year, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states formed a coalition to take on the Houthis in what they said was an effort to stop Iran;s growing sway in Yemen.

The conflict has killed more than 100,000 people and created the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, with more than 3 million people internally displaced and two-thirds of the population relying on food aid for survival.

The report blamed the Houthis and militias trained and funded by the United Arab Emirates for the majority of the abuse. Forces loyal to the internationally recognized government were responsible for at least 65 cases of torture and over two dozen deaths in detention centers, the group said.

The report, titled, “In the Darkness”: Abusive Detention, Disappearance and Torture in Yemen’s Unofficial Prisons,” was based on 2,566 interviews with former detainees, witnesses, relatives of detainees, activists, and lawyers, along with medical reports and photographic evidence, the group said.

Yemeni officials on both sides of the conflict did not answer calls on Tuesday seeking comment.

The group said over two dozen people died and around 140 were tortured in Houthi detention centers. The rebels used the security and intelligence agency in Sanaa and residential buildings in the city of Taiz as secret prisons where detainees were beaten and endured several kinds of torture, including having their nails ripped out and electric shocks.

An investigation by The Associated Press in December 2018 showed that thousands of Yemenis were imprisoned by the Houthis, many suffering extreme torture such as being smashed in their faces with batons, being hung from chains by their wrists or genitals for weeks at a time, and scorched with acid.

In the southern port city of Aden, which is controlled by UAE-backed separatist militias, the rights group said the secessionist Southern Transitional Council used two underground halls and rooms at the counter-terrorism agency as a detention center. Its report documented at least 18 cases of torture and two deaths at this secret prison.

The AP also in 2018 revealed that hundreds of Yemenis swept up in anti-terror raids by Emirati-backed forces have been subjected to torture and sexual abuse aimed at brutalizing the detainees and extracting “confessions” as part of a U.S.-backed anti-terror campaign.

JERUSALEM (AP) — A ship traveling in the Gulf of Aden came under attack Thursday, officials said, the latest assault carried out by Yemen's Houthi rebels over Israel's ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The attack comes after the U.S. military said early Thursday an allied warship shot down a Houthi missile targeting a vessel the day before near the same area. The Houthis claimed that Wednesday assault, which comes after a period of relatively few rebel attacks on shipping in the region over Israel’s ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In Thursday's attack, a ship was targeted just over 25 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of Aden, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.

The captain “reports a loud bang heard and a splash and smoke seen coming from the sea,” the UKMTO said. “Vessel and all crew are safe.”

The attack was also reported by the private security firm Ambrey.

Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed the attack late Thursday, identifying the ship the rebels tried to target as the MSC Darwin.

European Union forces separately shot down a drone launched from Houthi territory on Thursday, Gen. Robert Brieger said. Separately on Wednesday, the British warship HMS Diamond began the first in the Royal Navy to shoot down a missile since 1991 when it destroyed a Houthi missile targeting merchant ships.

The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sank another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.

Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen and shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat. American officials have speculated that the rebels may be running out of weapons as a result of the U.S.-led campaign against them and firing off drones and missiles steadily in the last months.

However, Wednesday's attack was the first one by rebels in some time. An explosion struck some 130 kilometers (80 miles) southeast of Djibouti in the Gulf of Aden, the UKMTO said.

Early Thursday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said the explosion came from a coalition warship shooting down the missile likely targeting the MV Yorktown, a U.S.-flagged, owned and operated vessel with 18 U.S. and four Greek crew members.

“There were no injuries or damage reported by U.S., coalition or commercial ships,” Central Command said.

Saree claimed that attack but insisted without evidence that the missile hit the Yorktown. Saree also claimed the Houthis targeted another ship in the Indian Ocean, without providing proof. The Houthis have made repeated claims that turned out to not be true during their yearslong war in Yemen.

The Houthis have said they will continue their attacks until Israel ends its war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.

Most of the ships targeted by the Houthis have had little or no direct connection to Israel, the U.S. or other nations involved in the war. The rebels have also fired missiles toward Israel, though they have largely fallen short or been intercepted.

In this photo provided by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), a Sea Viper missile is launched from HMS Diamond to shoot down a missile fired by the Iranian-backed Houthis from Yemen, Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired a large barrage of drones and missiles targeting shipping in the Red Sea Wednesday. (LPhot Chris Sellars/MoD Crown copyright via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), members of the HMS Diamond's Bridge team shoot down a missile fired by the Iranian-backed Houthis from Yemen, Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired a large barrage of drones and missiles targeting shipping in the Red Sea Wednesday. (LPhot Chris Sellars/MoD Crown via AP)