Huthi drone attack kills Yemeni soldier

DUBAI: A Yemeni soldier was killed and two others wounded Saturday in a drone attack launched by Iran-backed Huthi rebels in the war-torn country’s south, a government official told AFP.

A military source in the besieged government-held city of Taez confirmed the casualties, the latest in renewed fighting in Yemen despite diplomatic efforts to halt the long-running conflict.

The drone attack targeted a military checkpoint “before the passage of a convoy carrying Defence Minister Mohsen al-Daari, accompanied by chief of staff General Saghir bin Aziz, who were heading towards the city of Taez,” the government official said, also requesting anonymity.

Taez, Yemen´s third largest city, is controlled by the Saudi-backed government but surrounded by Huthi rebels, who have seized large swathes of the country in almost a decade of war.

Clashes on Monday in oil-producing Marib province, one of the main battlegrounds and the government´s last stronghold in the north, killed 10 soldiers, military sources told AFP.

The flare-up comes amid growing international efforts to end the war that has ravaged the Arab world´s poorest country.

The Huthis seized control of Yemen´s capital Sanaa in late 2014, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention the following year.

Since the first air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition on March 26, 2015, the war has killed hundreds of thousands directly or indirectly, and triggered one of the world´s worst humanitarian crises.

Earlier this month, Riyadh and Tehran agreed to restore diplomatic ties after a seven-year rupture, spurring some hope it would lead to calm in Yemen, where the regional heavyweights back opposing sides.