150 Houthi Rebels Killed in Airstrikes, Saudi-led Coalition Says

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said in a statement released on Monday that it had “destroyed 13 military vehicles and killed 150 terrorist elements” in airstrikes over the previous 24 hours in Abdiya, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Marib, the internationally recognized government’s last bastion in the country. More than 1,100 rebels have been killed in the area in the past week, the coalition says. The Houthis have been trying to take control of Marib since early this year, initiating a major offensive in February and then renewing that offensive in September. Rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, in a televised speech on Monday, called for the battle to continue. “We must … confront the aggression with all firmness until the siege is lifted, the aggression and the occupation ends,” he said. The civil war in Yemen has dragged on now for seven years, directly and indirectly killing hundreds of thousands of people and displacing millions, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.