Over 80 killed in Yemen’s Marib within 24 hours

Sanaa, Feb 14 : More than 80 people were killed due to continued intense armed confrontations between pro-government Yemeni forces and the Houthi militia over the past 24 hours in the country’s northeastern oil-rich province of Marib, according to local sources.
An official of Marib’s local authority told Xinhua news agency that on Saturday “scores of the Houthi rebels continued in launching a series of armed attacks on the government-controlled sites in Marib’s northwestern parts”, reports Xinhua news agency.
Units of the pro-government armed forces were engaged in intense armed confrontations with the Houthi attackers and attempted to repulse their offensive against the oil-rich province, the source said.
He explained that the Iran-backed Houthi militia mobilized hundreds of its fighters from other northern provinces in preparation for launching an all-out offensive to seize Marib.
Warplanes of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition launched a number of airstrikes against the Houthi-controlled sites in Marib to support the government forces on-ground, according to the official.
An officer of the pro-government forces told Xinhua that “the Houthis are desperately trying to make progress towards Marib but their attacks were aborted by the government soldiers”.