Houthi missile hits tribal leaders’ meeting
Thirteen people were killed when a missile launched by Houthi rebels hit a house in Al Jawba district of Yemen’s Marib province on Thursday, Information Minister Muammar Al Eryani has said.
Two of the dead were sons of Sheikh Abdul Latif Al Qibli, a local tribal leader, Mr Al Eryani said on Twitter.
“The Houthis struck a home owned by Sheikh Abdul Latif Al Qibli while he was holding a meeting with other leaders of those [tribes] fighting alongside the government troops,” a source told The National.
“A missile rocked the house, killing and injuring 13 people, among them two sons of the sheikh and a child,” he said.
The Iran-backed rebels launched an offensive on Marib city, the provincial capital, in February and have stepped up their attacks in recent weeks.
The province is the last northern stronghold of the internationally recognised government, which is based in the southern port city of Aden after rebels overran the capital, Sanaa, in 2014.
The fighting in Marib raised concerns about civilian safety, including the two million people displaced from other parts of the country during more than six years of civil war.
“If the conflict reaches the city, it would be a disaster for them,” said Basheer Omar, a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Yemen.
Mr Al Eryani said the Houthi rebels continued to “systematically and deliberately bombard villages and homes” with medium and heavy weapons, drones and missiles “to inflict maximum casualties among civilians”.
The attacks have forced hundreds of local families and displaced people to flee Al Jawba, he said.
Countering the Houthi offensive, the Arab military coalition supporting the government has reported hundreds of rebel casualties from almost daily air strikes in Marib in the past three weeks.
On Thursday, the Saudi-led coalition said 95 rebels were killed by air strikes near Marib city, including in Al Jawba, about 50 kilometres to the south, and Al Kassara, 30km to the north-west.