Missile, Drone attacks killed more than 100 people in Yemen

Dubai: Officials say the Houthi miltia in central Yemen has accused the missile and drone attacks  killing more than 100 people and dozens of wounded.

Saturday’s strike was relatively calm during the war between Iran-backed Houthis and the internationally recognized Yemeni government.

Military sources told AFP that during the evening prayers the Houthis attacked a mosque in the military base in the central province of Malibu, about 170 kilometers east of the capital Sana’a.

“We strongly condemn the Houthi militia terrorist attacks on a mosque … in which more than 100 people died and dozens were injured,” Yemen’s Foreign Ministry said on Twitter.

A military spokesperson said the dead included soldiers and civilians, and the Houthis would be “ruthless” retribution for the strike.

The victims were rushed to a hospital in Malibu, where medical personnel had previously killed 83 and injured 148.

The death toll in violent clashes in Yemen is often controversial, but Malibu’s list of huge victims is one of the bloodiest attacks since the outbreak of the war since terrorist militias occupied Sana’a in 2014.

The Huxi people did not immediately claim responsibility.

Hadath Television, owned by Saudi Arabia, broadcast a video with the terrible consequences of the attack.

Fragments can be seen on the floor. Blood gathered on the carpet and splashed on the wall.

Drone and rocket attacks occurred one day after coalition-backed government forces conducted a large-scale operation against Houthis in the Nihm area north of Sana’a.

Saba official news agency said the fighting in Nihm on Sunday was still going on.

“Dozens from the (Houthi) militia were killed and injured,” the source added.

Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi denounced the “cowardly and terrorist” attack on the mosque, Saba reported.

“The disgraceful actions of the Houthi militia without a doubt 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.

United Nations envoy Martin Griffiths condemned the aerial attack and what he said was the escalation of military activities in three governorates “where airstrikes, missiles and ground attacks reportedly took place.”

“I have said before that the hard-earned progress that Yemen has made on de-escalation is very fragile. Such actions can derail this progress,” he said in a statement.

“I urge all parties to stop the escalation now and to direct their energy away from the military front and into the politics.”

Last week, Griffiths welcomed what he called “one of the quietest times in this conflict” in a briefing to the UN Security Council, warning that if there is no political progress, this peace cannot last.

A year after the warring parties in Yemen reached a UN ceasefire agreement on the port city of Hodida and the surrounding areas of the Red Sea, the fight in the province disappeared, but the slow implementation of the deal has the hope of ending removed from the conflict.

The historic agreement signed in Sweden in December 2018 is praised as the best opportunity for Yemen to end this fight that has put the country on the brink of famine.

Thousands of people were killed in the war that devastated the country, most civilians, and millions of people were displaced, leading to what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Shortly after the militia took control of Sana’a, the Arab League and its allies intervened in March 2015 in support of the government’s opposition to the Houthis.

A senior UN official warned on Thursday that some of the key factors that could cause famine last year were again imminent, including the sharp fall in the value of the country’s currency.

“As a result of the rapid depreciation of the rial and the interruption of wage payments, we also saw a few important conditions a year ago that brought Yemen to famine,” Ramesh Rajasingham, who coordinates Yemen’s humanitarian assistance, UN Security Council.

“We must not let this happen again,” he said.