Three dead in strikes on Yemen’s Marib city

Strikes on Yemen’s strategic city of Marib on Sunday killed a woman and two children and wounded at least 30 other people, military sources said, blaming Iran-backed Huthi rebels for the attack.

Two Huthi missile strikes hit a residential area in the city, the military sources told AFP, adding that six women and five children were among the wounded.

The tolls were confirmed by medical sources.

Hundreds of insurgents and pro-government troops have died in recent weeks after the Iran-backed rebels renewed their campaign for Marib, the government’s last stronghold in the country’s oil-rich north.

One of the missiles Sunday targeted the home of army chief of staff General Saghir bin Aziz, while the second hit neighbouring civilian homes, military source said.

“The targeting of women and children is the work of cowards,” Aziz said on his Facebook page after the attack.

The Huthis initially escalated their efforts to seize Marib in February, hoping to gain control of the region’s oil resources and strengthen their position in peace talks.

About 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of the rebel-held capital Sanaa, Marib sits at a crossroads between the southern and northern regions and is key to controlling Yemen’s north.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions have been displaced in the war that erupted in 2014, after the Huthis seized the capital Sanaa.

About 80 percent of Yemen’s 30 million people are dependent on aid, in what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.