Houthi rebel attacks kill at least 30 Yemeni government forces, officials say

CAIRO (AP) — Attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels Thursday in central and eastern Yemen killed at least 30 government troops and wounded at least 50 others, Yemeni government officials said. A Houthi leader said Saudi-backed troops were targeted in the attacks and that “hundreds” were either killed or injured.

The assaults hit camps for forces of the internationally recognized government in the provinces of Marib and Hadramout, the Yemeni officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The attacks were a major escalation since a de facto truce in Yemen in April 2022 that halted major fighting between the Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition, which backs the internationally recognized government.

Yemen’s army reported publicly only that the Houthi attacks on its camps had left dead and wounded among its troops, but it didn't give a death toll.

Houthi Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said the attacks on camps in Marib and Hadramout provinces were carried out with ballistic missiles and drones and that they were in response to a build-up of Saudi-backed forces in eastern Yemen.

The strikes killed and injured “hundreds of Saudi enemy mercenaries” and destroyed and burned camps, depots, military vehicles and weapons, the Houthi leader said.

“We call upon all our people to remain vigilant and confront any Saudi aggression, and to strike Saudi troop concentrations wherever they may be,” Saree said in his address.

The U.S. mission to Yemen expressed condolences to the families of the killed Yemeni soldiers in Hadramout and Marib, adding in a statement on X that the attacks by the Houthis “represent yet another example of their terrorism against the Yemeni people.”

Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war since 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital of Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government into exile in Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi-led coalition intervened months later and has been battling the rebels since 2015 to try and restore the internationally recognized government to power. However, the war has turned into a stalemated proxy conflict with neither side winning.

The Houthis claim that their recent escalation, including a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, is in response to the Kingdom's air and sea blockade on Yemen since 2015.

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Associated Press writer Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.