AL-MUKALLA: A series of large explosions rocked Yemen’s city of Marib on Monday night, when shells fired by Iran-backed Houthi militias hit a military base, Yemen’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) said on Tuesday.
The shells landed at Sahen Al-Jen military base in Marib, triggering large explosions that shook the city.
Amateur videos broadcast on local TV showed thick smoke billowing over the base. The MoD said that shells hit landmines and improvised explosive devices retrieved from battlefields, but that there were no fatalities.
The attack on Marib comes after Yemen’s government forces, backed by Saudi-led coalition warplanes, recaptured sizable swathes of territory, Yemen’s army spokesperson told Arab News.
Brig. Gen. Abdu Abdullah Majili said that territory in Nehim, near Houthi-held Sana’a, had been taken after fierce fighting left dozens dead on both sides.
“The national army is making progress on the battlefields,” he said, adding that the bodies of dozens of Houthi fighters had been abandoned in Nehim’s mountains. “We urge the International Red Cross to help us retrieve bodies in Nehim.
“The national army (also) managed to expel Houthi fighters from Safra and Baraqesh regions in Jawf,” Majili said. Fighting is currently raging in Jawf’s Masloub and Metoun districts, where government forces have traded mortar and cannon fire with the militias.
The Saudi-led coalition dispatched dozens of military vehicles and ammunition to Marib, the base of the Yemeni army and the coalition’s troops, to shore up government forces battling the Houthis.
The army said that massive military logistical and air support from the coalition had enabled government forces to score major territorial gains.
“I would like to thank the Kingdom of Ƶ for the enormous military support to the national army that helped us make victories,” Majili said.
Fighting has escalated since the start of the year, when a Houthi missile and drone attack killed more than 110 soldiers and civilians at a military base mosque in Marib.
In the Red Sea province of Hodeidah, government media outlets reported on Monday that Houthi artillery fire killed a mother and her child and injured two in the Attuhyita district, whilst another child was killed by a landmine in the district of Houk. There were also reports of artillery fire in the village of Al-Matena, where two civilians were said to have died.
Local human rights groups say that hundreds of civilians have been killed by Houthi land mines and shells since December 2018, when the government and the rebels signed the Stockholm Agreement that was designed to end hostilities in Hodeidah.
