The Houthis intensified their attacks to impose a siege on the city of Ma'rib, the last stronghold that is controlled by forces loyal to the recognized government in the north, in preparation for the attempt to storm it, in violent battles that left dozens of dead on both sides in the past hours.

At least two military officials in the pro-government forces told Agence France-Presse on Sunday that the Houthis had pushed "large numbers" of fighters and launched attacks from several sides on the strategic and oil-rich Marib in the past 24 hours.

The two sources indicated that 16 government forces were killed and 21 wounded, while "dozens of deaths" were among the Houthis, and "20 of the attackers were captured."

An official said that the "Iranian-backed" Houthis managed during these battles to cut off supply lines in the Al-Abdiyah district, about 50 kilometers south of Marib, "in preparation for their toppling in conjunction with other attacks carried out by them."

"The aim is to enforce the siege on Marib," he added.

The city, located about 120 kilometers east of the capital, Sanaa, where the Houthis have imposed their control since 2014, avoided the war at its beginning, but the Houthi group launched attacks for about a year to control it, and they intensified in the last two weeks.

The Houthis are seeking to control Marib before entering into any new talks with the recognized government, especially in light of US President Joe Biden's administration pressures to push for a political solution.

The Houthi takeover of Marib would deal a heavy blow to the government backed by a Saudi-led military coalition since March 2015, as northern Yemen would be entirely in their hands.

A big loss

Observers say that the authority will lose a large part of its image as an equal counterpart to the Houthis in peace talks.

The battles continue amid intense raids by the Saudi-led coalition to prevent the fall of Marib.

The city was seen as a "Saudi protectorate" in which the kingdom invested heavily in an effort to make it the only point of polarization for business in the country mired in war.

The Biden administration announced the withdrawal of US support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen and decided to remove the Houthis from the blacklist of terrorist organizations, despite the escalation of fighting and the Houthi drone attacks on Saudi Arabia in the last week.

The city of Marib is witnessing a state of alarm, with government forces calling on local tribes to support them.

But the Houthi spokesman, Muhammad Abdul Salam, told the city’s residents that the group’s forces "will only fight those involved militarily with the foreign enemy."

And he directed them in a tweet on Twitter on Saturday evening, saying, "It is for our honorable people in Marib to reassure (...) and they must return to their senses and realize that the coalition of aggression is fighting with them and not with them."

Saudi

Yesterday, the Saudi authorities announced that their defenses had intercepted an explosive drone launched by the Houthi group towards Abha International Airport, at a time when the Houthis considered that "defensive" military operations would continue until what they called the aggression to stop.

Turki Al-Maliki, a spokesman for the military coalition led by Riyadh, said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) that "the joint coalition forces managed on Saturday morning to intercept and destroy an explosive drone launched by the Houthi militia (...) to target Abha International Airport. ".

This comes while the Houthi military spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, stated that the air force had targeted Abha International Airport, and that the operation had achieved its results.