ADEN/SANAA: Two children were killed and 33 other civilians injured in Houthi missile strikes on Yemen’s central Marib city on Sunday, the internationally recognized government’s state news agency said.
Two missiles targeted military areas in the city, residents said, while a third landed near a residential district that houses military headquarters of the Arab coalition.
The state news agency said Ghozlan Feisal, 4, and her two-year-old brother Radad were killed when a missile hit their house, seriously injuring their mother. It said four other women and five children, ages ranging from seven months to 16 years, were among those wounded. Among the wounded were a mother and her seven-month-old child, both were in serious condition, said Ali Al-Ghulisi, the provincial governor’s press secretary.
The missiles destroyed two houses, damaged 10 others in the neighborhood and burned eight vehicles, he said.
3-We regret intl community, UN, UN&US envoys silence re these terrorist attacks on civilians, women &children, in flagrant violation of international law. We demand a clear &explicit condemnation, &to prosecute perpetrators among Houthi leaders &elements in international courts pic.twitter.com/vq6skkAr08
— معمر الإرياني (@ERYANIM) October 3, 2021
Qasem Buhaibeh, the health minister of the internationally recognized government, said in a tweet that the attack was part of Houthi’s “continuous war crimes with silent world.”
The attack was the latest by the Houthi militia on Marib, as they have for months been trying to retake the energy-rich city from the government of exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
However, they have not made substantial progress and have suffered heavy losses amid stiff resistance from government forces aided by the Arab coalition supporting them.
The coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the Iran-aligned Houthi militia ousted the government from the capital Sanaa.
The rebels have fired ballistic missiles and sent drones into Marib, often hitting civilian areas and camps for displaced people. In June, they hit a gas station in the same Rawdha neighborhood a missile and explosive-laden drones, killing at least 21 people, including a father and his 2-year-old daughter.
(With Reuters and AP)