Ansarullah Rejects Saudi Claim of Its Role in Yemen’s Ma’rib Attack
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A senior official with Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement dismissed a claim by Riyadh and Dubai that it was behind a recent deadly attack against a military camp belonging to pro-Saudi militants in the northern city of Ma’rib.
“If we had carried out the attack, we would have announced it publicly,” said Mohammad al-Bakhiti, a member of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, in an interview with the Al Jazeera on Monday.
The missile attack on Saturday targeted a military camp occupied by Saudi-backed militiamen loyal to the ex-Yemeni government in Ma’rib. Reports say there were also forces from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries at the site.
The death toll increased to 116 and is expected to rise, military and medical sources told AFP on Monday. Earlier reports said that 83 were killed and 148 injured.
The Saudi regime and the UAE — two key parties to a Riyadh-led coalition waging war on Yemen — blamed the raid on the Houthi movement, which has been defending the country against the invaders.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen, with the goal of bringing the government of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and eliminating the Yemeni Houthi Ansarullah movement, whose fighters have been helping the Yemeni army significantly in defending the country against invaders since the onset of war.
The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has so far claimed more than 100,000 lives.