Sanaa, Aug 16 (IANS) Yemen’s Houthi group launched an attack on the government-held city of Marib in the oil-rich province of Marib, pro-government media said.
The state-run Saba TV channel, based in Marib, said the Houthis fired three ballistic missiles at neighbourhoods in the city on Saturday evening (local time). No immediate information was available on casualties or damage.
Residents contacted by Xinhua news agency confirmed hearing several loud explosions across the city around the time of the reported missile strikes.
The Houthis have yet to comment on the reported attack.
The Houthis have intensified missile and drone attacks in recent weeks against government-held areas in Yemen and targets in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, a key backer of the Yemeni government.
The group announced a maritime ban on Saudi shipping on July 20 and has since claimed attacks on Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea as well as energy facilities inside the kingdom.
Yemen has been mired in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthis seized much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in 2015 in support of the Yemeni government.
A UN-brokered truce that took effect in April 2022 expired six months later without a formal extension, but a fragile de facto ceasefire has largely held until the recent escalation.
Earlier, on Saturday, Hothis announced that the Saudi forces launched “artillery and missile strikes” on areas along Yemen’s northern border in the province of Saada, as tensions between the two sides continue to escalate.
The group’s affiliated Al-Masirah TV reported that “Saudi artillery fire” targeted Al-Dhaher district in the northern province of Saada, a Houthi stronghold bordering Saudi Arabia.
Separately, heavy “missile fire” struck the Bani Sayyah area in Saada’s border district of Razih, damaging farmland belonging to local residents, the television channel said.
No casualties were immediately reported, nor was there any immediate comment from Saudi authorities.
The reported shelling came a day after the Houthis claimed a drone attack on a facility belonging to Saudi state oil company Aramco in the southern region of Najran, saying the strike was a retaliation for an alleged incursion by Saudi warplanes into Saada’s airspace.
–IANS
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