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More than 90 Yemen rebels killed near Marib: Saudi-led coalition

AFP . Riyadh
22 Oct 2021 21:27:15 | Update: 23 Oct 2021 09:21:30
More than 90 Yemen rebels killed near Marib: Saudi-led coalition
Yemenis displaced by military battles between the pro-Iranian Huthi rebels and the Saudi-backed internationally recognised government forces receive food aid in the village of Hays, near the conflict zone in Yemen's western province of Hodeida, on October 21, 2021. — AFP Photo

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said Friday it had killed at least 92 Huthi rebels in airstrikes on two districts near the strategic city of Marib.

The deaths are the latest among hundreds that the coalition says have been killed in recent fighting around Marib, and come during the second week of reported intense bombing.

"Operations targeted 16 military vehicles and killed more than 92 terrorist elements" in the past 24 hours, the coalition said in a statement, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The Iran-backed Huthis rarely comment on losses, and the numbers could not be independently verified by AFP.

The coalition has for the past two weeks reported almost daily strikes around Marib.

Most of the previously announced strikes were in Abdiya, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Marib -- the internationally recognised government's last bastion in oil-rich northern Yemen.

The latest airstrikes reported were in the districts of Al-Jawba, some 50 kilometres south of Marib, and Al-Kassara, 30 kilometres northwest.

The Huthis began a major push to seize Marib 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 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 Security Council on Wednesday called for "de-escalation" in Yemen, in a unanimously adopted statement to counter "the growing risk of large-scale famine" in the country.

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