Yemen: Battle of Marib intensifies, at least 150 Houthi rebels killed, coalition says
Yemeni pro-government fighters gather to resist the Houthi rebel offensive near Marib on September 27, 2021. © AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen said Thursday, October 14, that it had killed more than 150 Houthi rebels in new raids south of the strategic city of Marib.
The battle has claimed hundreds of lives there in recent days and, according to the UN, has already displaced tens of thousands of civilians.
Advertising
Read more
"
The operation destroyed 11 military vehicles and killed more than 150 terrorist elements
" in Al-Abdiya, south of the city of Marib, the coalition quoted by the official Saudi press agency SPA said.
Marib, capital of the province that bears the same name, is at the heart of a violent battle.
It is the last government stronghold in northern Yemen, which is largely dominated by the Houthis.
Al-Abdiya is located about 100 kilometers south of the city but is located in Marib province, an oil-rich and geographically strategic region between northern and southern Yemen.
Figures difficult to verify
The Houthis launched a campaign in February to take Marib where they are advancing,
having stepped up their offensive in recent weeks
.
The coalition has responded over the past four days with a volley of airstrikes that it says have killed more than 500 insurgents.
These figures could not be verified from an independent source.
And the Houthis rarely communicate about victims in their ranks.
The two sides have been waging
a devastating war since 2014
, when the Houthis, close to Iran, seized the capital Sanaa in northern Yemen.
Since 2015, the Saudi-led coalition has intervened to support loyalist forces struggling against the rebels.
Withdrawal of the Houthis from certain positions south of Marib
According to military sources in the Yemeni government, the Houthis had to withdraw from some of the positions they controlled earlier this week south of Marib due to raids and heavy clashes.
Despite their losses, the rebels "are
advancing new reinforcements
" and "
sending thousands of fighters to their deaths,
" according to one of the officials.
On the loyalist side, at least 23 fighters, including three officers, have been killed and dozens have been wounded in the past 48 hours, according to military sources.
In a country which is
the poorest of the Arabian Peninsula, plunged into the worst humanitarian crisis in the world
, the UN warns of a deterioration of the situation because of the battle of Marib.
On Thursday, she said tens of thousands of people had been displaced by the fighting in the province.
"55,000 displaced"
"
From January 1 to September 30, IOM [the International Organization for Migration] registered more than 55,000
displaced people in Marib province
," the UN agency told AFP.
And these figures only relate to "
the areas to which our teams for monitoring movements and rapid response have access,
" she said.
As the conflict intensified, nearly 10,000 people were displaced in September alone, the highest monthly toll this year in the province, according to IOM.
On Wednesday, October 13, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs deplored that "
essential infrastructure such as bridges and roads have also been damaged or even destroyed
".
Marib had between 20,000 and 30,000 inhabitants before the war.
The city is now home to hundreds of thousands of people, mostly Yemenis displaced by the seven-year conflict.
According to the government, more than 130 refugee camps host approximately 2.2 million people in the province.
Since the start of the conflict, tens of thousands of people, most of them civilians, have been killed and millions displaced.
With AFP
►
Read also:
Interview: In Yemen, one in eight people is displaced in an increasingly violent conflict
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Yemen
Saudi Arabia