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Yemeni fighters inspect the site of an air strike. After a recent lull in fighting, coalition-backed government forces launched a large-scale operation against the Houthis, and a drone and missile strike blamed on Houthis killed dozens of Yemeni soldiers. Photo: AP

At least 75 soldiers killed in drone attack on mosque in Yemen, as fighting intensifies

  • The attack on the mosque in a military camp in Marib province follows months of relative calm in Yemen’s ongoing conflict
  • It came after government forces launched a large-scale operation against the Houthis in the Naham region
Yemen
At least 75 Yemeni soldiers have been killed in missile and drone attacks blamed on Houthi rebels, medical and military sources said on Sunday.

Saturday’s strike on a military camp in the central province of Marib, about 170km (105 miles) east of the capital Sanaa, follows months of relative calm in the war between the Iran-backed Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognised government which is backed by a Saudi-led military coalition.

On Sunday, a military official based in Mareb, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attack had left 75 soldiers dead and 100 others injured. “The attack was mounted by drones and targeted a mosque in the camp where soldiers were gathering to perform prayers,” the official said.

Members of Yemen's southern separatist-dominated Security Belt Forces. Photo: AFP

The attack came a day after coalition-backed government forces launched a large-scale operation against the Houthis in the Naham region, north of Sanaa.

Fighting in Naham was ongoing on Sunday, a military source said according to the official Saba news agency.

“Dozens from the [Houthi] militia were killed and injured,” the source added.

Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi condemned the “cowardly and terrorist” attack on the mosque. “The disgraceful actions of the Houthi militia without a doubt confirm its unwillingness to [achieve] peace, because it knows nothing but death and destruction and is a cheap Iranian tool in the region,” Hadi was quoted as saying.

The Houthis did not make any immediate claim of responsibility.

A member of Yemen's southern separatist-dominated Security Belt Forces stands guard in Aden. Photo: AFP

The uptick in violence comes soon after United Nations envoy Martin Griffiths welcomed a sharp reduction in air strikes and the movement of ground forces.

“We are surely, and I hope this is true and I hope it will remain so, witnessing one of the quietest periods of this conflict,” he said in a briefing to the UN Security Council on Thursday.

“Experience however tells us that military de-escalation cannot be sustained without political progress between the parties, and this has become the next challenge.”

Yemen’s Houthi rebels say they killed or wounded 500 coalition fighters

A year after Yemen’s warring sides agreed to a UN-brokered truce for the key Red Sea port city of Hodeida and its surroundings, fighting in the province has subsided but the slow implementation of the deal has quashed hopes for an end to the conflict.

The landmark agreement signed in Sweden in December 2018 had been hailed as Yemen’s best chance so far to end the fighting that has pushed the country to the brink of famine.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed and millions displaced in the war that has ravaged the country, triggering what the UN describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in the conflict to back the government against the Houthis in March 2015, soon after the rebels seized control of Sanaa.

Portraits of late Houthi fighters killed in Yemen's ongoing conflict are seen on a wall in Sanaa, Yemen. Photo: EPA-EFE

A senior UN official warned on Thursday that certain key factors that threatened to trigger a famine in Yemen last year were once again looming large, including a plunge in the value of the national currency.

“With a rapidly depreciating rial and disrupted salary payments, we are again seeing some of the key conditions that brought Yemen to the brink of famine a year ago,” Ramesh Rajasingham, who coordinates humanitarian aid in Yemen, told the UN Security Council. “We must not let that happen again.”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: At least 75 soldiers killed in drone attack by rebels
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