Fourteen Yemeni soldiers were killed and injured on Thursday following an attack attributed to the Houthi rebels in the northeastern province of Marib, Yemen, where the fiercest fighting between the two sides has been ongoing for years.
A Yemeni military source informed Sputnik that fighters from the Houthi rebels launched a mortar attack on positions of the Yemeni army and allied tribes in the Al-Zor front west of Marib province, resulting in the death of 6 soldiers and injury of 8 others from the Yemeni army.
The Houthi rebels didn’t hear any immediate comment about the attributed attack.
The attack comes after days of clashes, including heavy weapons, between joint Yemeni forces and militants from the Houthi rebels, who attacked the Al-Jufrah area in the Al-Abdiyah district south of Marib on May 18, resulting in the death of 3 soldiers and 5 from the rebel ranks, while 13 were injured from both sides.
Marib has been the scene of the fiercest conflict between the Yemeni army and the Houthi rebels since the launch of the Houthi campaign in early 2021 to take control of the entire Marib province, especially its center, Marib city.
The rebels seized control of several areas in the oil and gas-rich province.
Marib city, controlled by the Yemeni army, holds significant political, military, and economic importance in Yemen’s conflict, housing the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense and the Yemeni Army Command, in addition to the Safir oil fields, refinery, and the largest gas-powered electricity generation station in the country with a capacity of 341 megawatts.
On May 13, the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General, Hans Grundberg, expressed “concern about the continued military activities in Al-Dhale, Al-Hudaydah, Lahj, Marib, Saada, Shabwa, and Taiz,” calling on the conflict parties to “exercise maximum restraint in their actions and rhetoric during this fragile stage,” emphasizing that “achieving a peaceful and just solution is still possible.”
Yemen has been witnessing a fragile calm since the United Nations announced on October 2, 2022, that the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels failed to reach an agreement to extend and expand the ceasefire that lasted for 6 months.
The Arab country has been suffering from a continuous power struggle between the internationally recognized government and the Houthi rebels for the tenth consecutive year, resulting in a humanitarian crisis described by the United Nations as the worst in the world.
The Houthi rebels have been controlling the majority of the central and northern Yemeni provinces, including the capital Sana’a, since September 2014. Meanwhile, an Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia launched military operations on March 26, 2015, in support of the Yemeni army to regain control of those areas from the grip of the rebels.
The ongoing war in Yemen until late 2021 has claimed the lives of 377,000 people and inflicted cumulative losses on the Yemeni economy estimated at $126 billion, while 80% of the Yemeni population needs humanitarian aid, according to the United Nations.
