The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen claimed Thursday (October 14th) that it had killed more than 150 Houthi rebels in new raids south of the strategic city of Marib, where the battle has claimed hundreds of lives in recent days.
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The operation destroyed 11 military vehicles and killed more than 150 terrorist elements
" in Al-Abdiya, south of the city of Marib, the coalition quoted by the official Saudi press agency SPA said.
Read alsoYemen: deadly battle for control of Marib
The last government stronghold in northern Yemen largely dominated by the Houthis, Marib, the capital of the province with the same name, is at the heart of a fierce battle. The Houthis launched a campaign in February to take Marib where they are advancing, having stepped up their offensive in recent weeks. The coalition has responded over the past four days with a volley of airstrikes that it says have killed more than 500 insurgents. These figures could not be verified from an independent source and the Houthis very rarely communicate on victims in their ranks.
The two camps have been waging a devastating war since 2014, when the Houthis, close to Iran, seized the capital Sanaa (north).
Since 2015, the Saudi-led coalition has intervened to support loyalist forces struggling against the rebels.
The war in Yemen has plunged the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula into the world's worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN, pushing the population to the brink of famine.
Tens of thousands of people, most of them civilians, have been killed and millions displaced since the start of the conflict.
