ABU DHABI: Seven Yemeni soldiers were killed in a missile attack on Wednesday in the central province of Marib held by the Saudi-led coalition, a medic and military official said.

The strike on a Marib military base came after six people, among them four civilians, were killed in an attack last week on another base in the Red Sea coastal town of Mokha.

The uptick in violence follows weeks of relative calm in the war between the internationally-recognised government — backed by the coalition — and Iran-aligned Houthi rebels.

A military official said the Houthis carried out Wednesday’s attack.

Seven soldiers, including two senior officers, were killed and 12 others injured, he said in a casualty toll confirmed by a medic at Marib hospital.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed since Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in the conflict to back the government against the rebels in 2015.

The conflict, which the United Nations says has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, has pushed the country to the brink of famine.

In a glimmer of hope for ending the fighting, a Saudi official said last week that Riyadh now has an “open channel” with the Houthis.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2019