E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

96 dead after heavy fighting in Yemen's Marib, say loyalists
[DAILYTIMES.PK] Some 96 combatants bit the dust as a result of heavy fighting near the Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
i city of Marib over the last two days, loyalist commanders said Friday.

The fight broke out after Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
s
press their offensive on the government´s last northern toehold.

"Clashes between the two sides on several fronts in the Marib area on Wednesday and Thursday killed 36 loyalists troops and 60 rebels," one government military source told AFP.

The Iran-backed rebels rarely disclose their own losses.

Aircraft of a military coalition led by Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
provided air support to government ground forces.

The Huthis are "keeping up their slow advance on Marib and now constitute a very real threat on the Kassara and Mashjah fronts, northwest of the city," another loyalist military official told AFP.

The loss of Marib would be a heavy blow for the Yemeni government, currently based in the southern city of Aden, and for its Saudi backers.

The city of Marib and its surrounding oil fields make up the last significant pocket of government-held territory in the north, the rest of which is under rebel control, including the capital Sanaa.

The city´s fall could also lead to a humanitarian disaster, as vast numbers of civilians displaced from fighting elsewhere have sought refuge in the area.

Around 140 camps have sprung up in the surrounding desert to provide basic shelter for up to two million displaced, according to the Yemeni government.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that the suffering will only end when a political solution is found between the Huthis and the government.

The rebels see Marib as a strategic prize that will give them more bargaining power in peace talks that Washington says must begin soon.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in 2015.

Millions have been pushed to the brink of famine, in what the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
has described as the world´s worst humanitarian crisis.
Posted by: Fred 2021-04-19
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=599869