Houthis say liberated more than 200 prisoners in newly captured regions

Yemen's Houthis said on Saturday that they had freed more than 200 of their members detained by Saudi-backed pro-government forces in areas they captured in recent days.

Houthi official Abdelkader al-Murtada said they were prisoners of war who had spent up to eight years in jail before the Iran-backed group launched a rapid offensive to take over areas bordering the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

"We have welcomed 210 of our prisoners, freed from Saudi enemy prisons on the west coast," Murtada said at a conference in the capital Sanaa.

The Houthis had already controlled large parts of northern Yemen, including most of the country's populated areas and the major cities of Sanaa and Hodeida, before making dramatic advances last week.

Aboard the large buses taking them to the capital, the freed detainees celebrated their liberty by chanting "Death to America, death to Israel" before being welcomed by their supporters.

"I have rediscovered the taste of life. For five years I was in prison, under the yoke of aggression. For five years, I suffered every day," Mohammed Bajash told AFP.

Mohammed Fawzi, meanwhile, who spent three months in detention, called it "a moment of indescribable joy".

In May, the UN announced an agreement between the internationally recognised government and the Houthis to exchange more than 1,600 prisoners between the two sides, but it was never carried out.

A successful prisoner swap was conducted in April 2023, when 900 detainees were exchanged, the largest swap since one involving 1,000 prisoners in October 2020.

The war in Yemen, mostly on hold since 2022, sparked back to life in July.