The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen claimed on Friday (October 15th) that it had killed more than 180 Houthi rebels in new raids south of the strategic city of Marib, where fighting has already claimed hundreds of lives in recent days.
"
The operation destroyed 10 military vehicles and killed more than 180 terrorist elements
" in al-Abdiya and around this locality, located south of the city of Marib, the coalition said, quoted by the official news agency. Saudi SPA.
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 the city in which they are advancing, having stepped up their offensive in recent weeks.
Tens of thousands of deaths since 2014
The coalition has responded since Monday with a salvo of airstrikes that it said killed hundreds of insurgents.
These figures could not be verified from an independent source.
And the Houthis rarely communicate about 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 country, the poorest in 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.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/KMEYMJKESBAZBE4MRBAM4TGHIQ.jpg)
