MORE than 180 people have been left injured after Saudi air strikes pummelled homes in the Yemeni port city of Hudaydah as well as hitting a detention centre in Saada.

At least 62 bodies were pulled from the rubble as the al-Jamhuri hospital in Saada struggled to deal with the casualties.

“The hospitals are full of martyrs and the wounded, and we desperately need medicine and medical equipment,” Saada Governor Mohammed Jaber Awad said.

Hudaydah was subjected to intense bombing on Thursday night, striking a communications centre. Six civilians were killed and 18 injured as residential areas were also targeted.

Rescue efforts were under way after a three-storey building was destroyed, but were being hampered by incessant Saudi bombing, local authorities said.

Air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition have intensified since the Houthi movement launched what it described as retaliatory strikes against the United Arab Emirates last weekend.

At least three people were killed and six injured in missiles launched by drones targeting Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports and an oil refinery.

Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree declared the UAE an “unsafe state” due to its involvement in the war on Yemen, warning of “more painful blows” to come.

Yemen Supreme Political Council spokesman Mohammed Ali al-Houthi said attacks on residential areas were unforgivable and  branded the bombing of Hudaydah a war crime.

Hudaydah Governor Muhammad Ayyash Qahim said that the attacks would not deter the people of Yemen from resisting what he described as “Saudi-paid mercenaries.” 

“The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and their mercenaries will be held to account for the crimes they have perpetrated against ordinary citizens,” he said.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said he was concerned over the continued Saudi-led bombing of Yemen and reiterated his call “on the parties to exercise maximum restraint and prevent any escalation amid heightened tensions in the region, as well as to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a press conference on Thursday.

The Saudi Arabian-led coalition began its bombing campaign in March 2015 as it seeks to restore the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi who was ousted in a popular uprising led by the Houthis.

Despite allegations of war crimes and Yemen being bombed to the brink of the world’s worst global famine in more than a century, Saudi Arabia has the continued support of Britain, France and the United States.

According to a UN report last month, 377,000 people have died as a result of the war.