At least two civilians have been killed and 14 injured in the latest Houthi attack on the Yemeni government-held city of Marib, according to the internationally recognised government.
Qassem Bahaibah, Yemen’s health minister, denounced the Iran-aligned Houthis as a “terrorist militia” in a post on X on Friday, adding that the toll of casualties was preliminary.
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Bahaibah said authorities had instructed all health facilities to raise their levels of alert and preparedness.
Friday’s attacks came the day after the Houthis killed at least 30 government soldiers in Hadramout and Marib provinces.
The government condemned Friday’s attack “in the strongest terms”, in a media statement issued by the Ministry of Public Health and Population.
“The deliberate targeting of safe residential neighbourhoods and camps of displaced people, and the resulting casualties among unarmed civilians, constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and of all humanitarian values and covenants,” it said.
“It places the international community and humanitarian and human-rights organisations before their responsibilities, and calls for a serious and urgent stance that protects civilians and puts an end to their continued targeting.”
Marib hosts the largest number of displaced families in Yemen, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
Earlier on Friday, the Yemeni Defence Ministry said its forces had shot down several Houthi drones over Marib.
Late in the day, Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said the group attacked and hit Saudi-backed forces, depots and military equipment near Marib.
In a post on Telegram, Saree said the Houthis would continue to “strike forcefully any Saudi mobilisation or forces brought by the Saudi enemy to maintain the siege imposed on our country”.
The attacks came amid intermittent fighting on several front lines across Yemen since early July that has resulted in dozens of casualties on both sides.
The Houthis have also increased attacks on Saudi Arabia in recent weeks, following a sharp rise in tensions triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran.
The Saudi-led coalition, which supports Yemen’s internationally recognised government, said on Friday that 11 people, including a four-year-old, were injured in a Houthi attack on the city of Najran in southwestern Saudi Arabia on Thursday.
Escalating tensions between the Houthis and Riyadh come as Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan signed a joint defence pact on Friday, stating that an attack on any of the three countries would be treated as an attack on all.
The Iran-backed Houthis took control of Yemen’s capital Sanaa in 2014. Since then, they have been fighting the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government in the port city of Aden.
