150 Houthis killed in Yemen strikes: Saudi-led coalition

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said Monday it had killed 150 Houthis near the strategic city of Marib, which would raise the rebel death toll to over 1,100 in a week.

Air strikes “destroyed 13 military vehicles and killed 150 terrorist elements” in Abdiya within the past 24 hours, the coalition said in a statement carried by the official SPA agency.

The Houthis rarely comment on losses, and the tolls could not be independently verified by AFP.

In a televised speech on Monday, rebel leader Abdelmalek al-Houthi called for continued fighting, as tens of thousands of supporters marched in towns held by the insurgents.

It came a day after the Houthis announced on Twitter that they had advanced on several fronts around Marib, including Abdiya, where the coalition says it is pounding the insurgents.

The Houthis began a major push to seize Marib, the internationally recognised government’s last bastion in oil-rich northern Yemen, in February, and have renewed their offensive since September after a lull.

The Yemeni civil war began in 2014 when the Huthis seized the capital Sanaa, 120 kilometres (75 miles) west of Marib, prompting Saudi-led forces to intervene to prop up the government the following year.

Tens of thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced in what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The UN last week called for a halt to fighting in Abdiya, where it said the movement of aid to tens of thousands of people had been “extremely restricted”.