Costly, critical: Battle for a key city in 7year war
MARIB CITY, Yemen — The two fighters stand shouldertoshoulder on a mountain overlook, with a clear view below of the enemy’s position. They are part of the last lines of defense between the government’s last stronghold in Yemen’s north, and the Houthi rebels trying to take it.
Hassan Saleh and his younger brother Saeed, both in their early 20s, have been fighting alongside other government fighters and tribesman outside the oilrich city of Marib, against the monthslong offensive by the Iranianbacked rebels. They say they need more weapons to push the attackers back.
“We need sniper rifles,” said Hassan, who was taking a position in a sandbagged trench in the mountainous Kassara region. All that most battalions have are old Kalashnikovs and machine guns mounted on the rear of pickup trucks.
This is the most active frontline in Yemen’s nearly 7yearold civil war, where a steady stream of fighters on both sides are killed or wounded every day, even as international pressure to end the war intensifies. Amid another round of peace talks, this time led by Oman, the desert city of Marib remains the crucible of one of the world’s most boggeddown conflicts.
The Houthis have for years attempted to take Marib to complete their control over the northern half of Yemen. But since February, they have waged an intensified offensive from multiple fronts, while hitting the residential city center with missiles and explosiveladen drones, killing and wounding dozens of civilians.
So far, the rebels have made only incremental progress,
inching slowly across the desert plain, because of Saudi air strikes that wreak heavy casualties in their ranks. Government and medical officials in Marib estimate that thousands of fighters have been killed or wounded, mostly rebels, since February. In the Houthiheld capital, Sanaa, mass funerals and death announcements of soldiers, some of them children, indicate how costly the battle has been.
The grueling battle over the
remote city seems intertwined with the sluggish efforts for peace. The Houthis appear to hope capturing Marib will give them the upper hand in talks. Meanwhile, government officials complain that American and international wariness at fueling the interminable war prevents them from getting weapons they need to win in Marib.
The U.S. is pressuring the Saudiled coalition that backs the government not to provide
more weapons for fear they could fall into militants’ hands amid worries over government “graft and incompetence,” a Yemeni official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
After years of criticism over civilian casualties from air strikes, President Biden’s administration in February withdrew its backing for the coalition’s campaign in Yemen.