Two air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition have killed at least 15 civilians and wounded 25 others in Yemen at a wedding hosted by a tribal leader known to support the Houthi rebels, witnesses and independent security officials said.
The strikes targeted the home of the tribal leader in Sanban on Wednesday, a region in Dhamar province 113 km southeast of the capital, Sana’a, the officials and witnesses said.
Coalition’s denial
The coalition last week denied that its airstrikes hit a wedding party September 28, killing more than 130 people in the deadliest single event of Yemen’s civil war.
News of the latest airstrikes emerged as officials said Yemeni government forces and their allies, including coalition troops, captured the last outpost of the Shiite Houthi rebels in the key Marib province. The forces took the town of Sirwah, said Colonel Ayed al-Moradi, a Yemeni military official.
U.N. announcement
With pressure increasing on the Houthis, the United Nations on Wednesday announced that the rebels had accepted a Security Council resolution calling for an end to the fighting. The U.N. special envoy was on his way to the region to see how Yemen’s government would respond.
The Houthis have long resisted calls to withdraw from all areas they have seized, which is a key part of the resolution the council approved in April shortly after the conflict began.
Previous attempts at peace talks have failed. U.N. special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed now will seek the support of all main parties to try again, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
Humanitarian crisis
The fighting has killed more than 4,000 people, leaving the Arab world’s poorest country in the grip of a humanitarian crisis and on the brink of famine.
The forces’ advance on the Houthis’ last outpost in Marib had been stalling for weeks.
Houthis said they repelled attacks amid coalition airstrikes, but Yemen’s pro-government satellite TV broadcast footage of bodies and destroyed tanks and armoured vehicles from inside Sirwah.
“Marib under anti-Houthi forces’ control”
Emirati Brigadier General Ali Saif al-Kaabi, part of the coalition, told the satellite TV channel that Marib province is now under anti-Houthi forces’ control.
According to medical officials, 70 Houthis and more than 50 pro-government fighters were killed in three days of fighting over the town. Witnesses in the town said few Houthi pockets still remain in Sirwah.
