ALEXANDRIA: Three civilians, including a child, were killed and 10 injured on Tuesday when two ballistic missiles fired by the Iran-backed Houthi militia struck the battleground Yemeni city of Marib. Two large explosions rocked the city in the afternoon as the missiles ripped through a densely populated district.
Among the dead was a 12-year-old child, Ghaleb Al-Salehi. Yemeni activists on social media shared graphic images of injured children receiving treatment at local hospitals.
Government officials, human rights activists and the Yemeni public accused the Houthis of endangering the lives of thousands of civilians in Marib, and of turning a deaf ear to all appeals to stop their deadly strikes and ground offensive on the city.
“We condemn and denounce in the strongest terms the Iranian-backed Houthi militia’s bombing of a residential neighborhood in the city of Marib with two Iranian-made ballistic missiles,” said Information Minister Moammar Al-Eryani.
The daily missile attacks on residential neighborhoods, displacement camps and government headquarters were systematic, the minister said, and the deliberate killing of civilians “reflects the failure of the terrorist Houthi militia to achieve any military progress.”
The missile strikes came as fighting intensified on Monday and Tuesday in contested areas outside Marib city. Army troops and allied tribesmen foiled fresh assaults by the Houthis in the Jabal Murad, Al-Mashjah and Al-Kasara areas.
Since the beginning of their ground offensive to capture Marib in February, the Houthis have intensified drone and missile strikes on residential areas in the city, which hosts tens of thousands of internally displaced people.
