Thirteen people, including a child, were killed in a rocket attack Thursday night against the house of a tribal leader in the strategic Yemeni city of Marib, a source close to the government army told AFP on Friday, dismissing the attack. to the Shiite Houthi rebels.
The last stronghold of the internationally recognized government in the war-torn northern part of Yemen, the oil-rich province of Marib, has been the scene of bloody clashes in recent weeks that have escalated in recent weeks as Houthis try to take control of the capital.
The air force of the Saudi-led military alliance is supporting ground government troops trying to repel a rebel attack on Iran.
“A ballistic missile fired by the Houthis on Thursday night hit the house of Sheikh Abdel Latif al-Kimbli in the al-Juba area, where tribal leaders fighting alongside government forces were meeting,” the source said.
“Thirteen people were killed, including a child,” and four tribal leaders, according to the same source.
This report was confirmed by a local medical source.
Information Minister Muammar al-Iriani spoke on Twitter about at least 12 people killed in the attack, including two sons of Sheikh Kimbli, whose fate is unknown. He accused the Houthis of “continuing to deliberately bomb villages and houses to inflict civilian casualties.”
The Houthi leadership has so far not reacted to the information and accusations about the rocket launch.
According to the army officer, fierce fighting has been going on in the Al Juba sector for several days.
The Riyadh alliance that intervened in the war in Yemen in late March 2015 has been talking almost daily for almost three weeks about airstrikes causing heavy casualties to Shiite rebels, but the figures it publishes cannot be verified by independent sources. and the Houthis rarely report losses to their classes.
For their part, the Shiite rebels assure that they are coming and that they are at the gates of Marib, which have been practically “surrounded”.
The Houthis have controlled most of northern Yemen since 2014, including the capital, Sanaa.
The conflict of more than seven years in the poorest country of the Arabian Peninsula has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, and displaced millions more, according to international aid organizations. For the UN, Yemen has sunk in recent years into the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the world.
