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 to a Reuters email requesting comment on the strike. For operational security reasons, the military has said it will not provide detailed information about the targets of its airstrikes.

Houthi-run Al Masirah television showed images of the aftermath of the strike in Saada, on a route used by African migrants to cross impoverished, conflict-riven Yemen to reach Saudi Arabia.

US strike on Yemen fuel port kills at least 38, says Houthi media

The footage showed bodies covered in dust amid blood-stained rubble. Rescue workers carried a man who was moving slightly on a stretcher. A survivor could be heard calling “My mother” in Amharic, the main language of Ethiopia.

The American administration had committed a “brutal crime” by bombing the Saada detention centre which held more than 100 undocumented African migrants, Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam said on X.

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.

US airstrikes on Yemen’s Ras Isa port kill over 74, injure at least 171

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 the loss of civilian lives.