At least 70 Yemeni soldiers have been killed in a missile attack conducted by Huthi rebels on a mosque in the central province of Marib, medical and military sources said Sunday.
The Huthis attacked a mosque in a military camp in Marib — some 170 kilometers (105 miles) east of Sanaa — during evening prayers on Saturday, military sources told AFP.
A medical source at a Marib city hospital, where casualties were transported, said that at least 70 soldiers were killed in the strike.
Backed by a Saudi-led military coalition, Yemen's internationally recognized government has been fighting the Iran-backed Huthis since 2014 when the rebels seized the northern capital of Sanaa.
Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi condemned the “cowardly and terrorist” attack, according to the official Saba news agency. The report did not give a death toll.
“Huthi militia's disgraceful acts undeniably confirm its unwillingness to (achieve) peace because it knows nothing but death and destruction and is a cheap Iranian tool in the region,” it quoted Hadi as saying.
The Huthis did not make any immediate claim of responsibility.
Since 2015, when Saudi Arabia and its allies participated in the war to back the government against the Huthi insurgents, hundreds of thousands of people, mainly civilians, had been killed and millions displaced.
The conflict, which the United Nations says has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, has pushed the country to the brink of famine.
Source: AFP
