Houthi attacks kill 10 in Yemen as UN warns of return to full-scale civil war

DUBAI, UAE — Houthi attacks on a strategic Yemeni province killed at least 10 people Friday, according to a minister and military source, as the rebels escalated strikes on the oil-rich region.

A 2022 truce between the Iranian-backed Houthis and the Saudi-supported Yemen government unravelled last month and at least 58 government troops were killed in rebel missile attacks on Marib province on Thursday.

The UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said in a statement that the country “today faces a greater risk of renewed large-scale conflict than at any point since the UN-brokered truce of April 2022”.

Amid the showdown between the United States and Iran, he called on both sides to show “restraint” and to return to “good faith negotiations.”

A Yemeni military source told AFP that the latest Houthi attacks in Marib killed eight members of government forces and wounded 12 others.

The health minister for the Saudi-backed government said the rebels shelled residential areas and displacement camps in Marib city, killing at least two civilians and wounding 14.

The rebels said they had attacked a government military camp in Marib province.

“The Saudi enemy continued to mobilise and incite its forces… these forces were attacked along with their arsenals, vehicles and military equipment in the Sahn al-Jinn camp with a large number of missiles and drones,” Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement.

Health minister Qasim Buhaibeh said in a post on X that “shelling by the terrorist Houthi militia today, Friday, targeting residential neighbourhoods and displacement camps in the city of Marib, has resulted — according to an initial toll — in the deaths of two civilians and injuries of varying severity to 14 others.”

The Houthis also launched “more than 10 missiles and seven one-way attack drones targeting military camps” in Marib province, the Yemeni military source told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

A source close to the Saudi military told AFP that the Saudi-led coalition supporting the Yemeni government since 2015 would not stand “idly by” against the Houthi attacks and that Marib was a “red line.”

The source warned that “the coalition does not seek escalation” but the Saudi authorities would not accept a Houthi takeover of Marib province.

The rebels said that they had attacked several sites Thursday in response to a Saudi-backed build-up of government forces.

The missile and drone attacks killed at least 58 government troops, mainly in Marib, an army source told AFP.

The Yemeni military source had previously said artillery exchanges and clashes were taking place in Sirwah and on the Al-Kasara front, north of Marib city.

The rebels also hit an arms depot in the region.

Marib province is split between the Houthis and the Yemeni government, which controls Marib city as well as the area’s oil fields and facilities.

The Houthis in 2021 resumed an offensive on the energy-rich province, but the fighting largely halted with the 2022 truce.

Yemen, which has been embroiled in more than a decade of war, last month became the latest front to be sucked into the US-Iran conflict, as the Tehran-backed Houthis upended the 2022 truce.

The rebels welcomed an Iranian plane directly to the Yemeni capital Sanaa, triggering tit-for-tat attacks. They later announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and began hitting its tankers.

Last month, the Houthis killed 16 soldiers in an attack on government-aligned forces south of the port city of Hodeidah, medical officials said.

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