Yemen: Houthi strike on strategic Marib city kills five
Yemen's Houthi rebels on Wednesday killed five people and wounded 23 others in a ballistic missile attack on the strategic northern city of Marib, the government’s last stronghold in the north, a medical source said.
The medic said that "two soldiers and three civilians were killed" in the strike, which the Houthis claimed on Twitter.
The Iran-aligned Houthi movement has been fighting to capture Marib, located in an oil-rich province of the same name, for months.
A pro-government military source also told AFP that a ballistic missile shot by the Houthis landed in the city.
The attack comes a day after pro-government militia fighters from the United Arab Emirates-backed Giants Brigades said they expelled the Houthis from Harib, a key district south of Marib.
Following a series of territorial defeats, the Houthis launched an attack on the UAE, killing three people and leading to a major escalation in the seven-year war pitting the rebels against Yemen's western-backed government.
The UAE is part of a Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting the rebels in support of the government.
Wednesday's attack on Marib also came two days after the Houthis' latest missile attack on the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi, and more than a week after their first deadly attack on UAE soil.
US precision-guided munition
Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of providing military support to the Houthis, claims that Tehran denies.
Meanwhile, rights group Amnesty International said on Wednesday that the coalition "used a precision-guided munition made in the United States" in a strike that hit a Yemeni prison last week.
The attack in rebel-held Saada killed at least 70 people dead and wounded more than 100, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Friday. The coalition has denied being behind the attack.
But Amnesty said its arms experts used "photos of the remnants of the weapon" to identify a GBU-12 500-pound "laser-guided bomb used in the attack".
Hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions displaced in the war in Yemen, which the United Nations has labelled one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
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