Ex-captives describe torture by Yemen's Houthi rebels

MARIB, Yemen (AP) — Former Yemeni prisoners have told The Associated Press of the brutal torture they suffered at the hands of Yemen's Houthi rebels.

Thousands have been imprisoned by the Houthi militia during Yemen's four-year civil war. Many of them, an Associated Press investigation found, suffered extreme forms of torture — smashed in their faces with batons, hung by their wrists or genitals for weeks at a time or scorched with acid.

The Abductees' Mothers Union, an association of female relatives of detainees jailed by Houthis, has documented at least 1,000 cases of torture in a network of secret prisons, including 126 who died of the abuse.