DOZENS of prisoners and warders were killed in Yemen’s western port of Hudaydah at the weekend when Saudi coalition warplanes bombed a prison complex.

The Al-Zaydiya security headquarters contained two prisons, with security forces and inmates among the 60 dead.

Hudaydah is controlled by Houthi Shi’ite rebels, who have been battling the government since 2014.

The prisons were holding 84 inmates when it was hit three times late on Saturday, with many rushed to hospital badly wounded.

The Saudi-led coalition, which backs Yemen’s exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, has been widely criticised for the number of civilians killed in its air strikes.

At least 155 people were killed earlier this month, most of them civilians, when planes bombed a funeral hall in the capital Sanaa.

The latest air strikes followed Mr Hadi’s rejection of a new peace proposal submitted by UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

Mr Hadi, who lives in the Saudi capital Riyadh, claimed that the plan “rewards the coup leaders and punishes the Yemeni people at the same time.”

Details of the proposal have not been made public but are believed to offer the Houthi forces a share in any future government.

It may also involve reducing some presidential powers in exchange for Houthis withdrawing from major cities.

The opposition seized Sanaa in 2014. Much of the internationally recognised government is now based in the second city of Aden.

The conflict escalated in March 2015 when the Saudi-led coalition launched a brutal air campaign against the Houthis and their allies.

Iran spoke out yesterday at the re-election of Saudi Arabia to the UN human rights council, despite demands from human rights groups to reject its candidacy.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Riyadh’s success revealed “the best indication that human rights is simply a matter of political interests.”

Russia was knocked off the council, largely in response to allegations of deliberate attacks on civilians in Moscow’s bombing of Aleppo.

Iraq, Egypt, China, Brazil, Rwanda, Hungary, Cuba, South Africa, Japan, Tunisia, the US and Britain were all elected to the human rights body.