Arab coalition: 92 Al Houthis killed in a day

Cairo: Around 92 militiamen of Yemen’s Iran-aligned Al Houthi militia have been killed in airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition in the past 24 hours in the north-eastern province of Marib, the alliance has said.

In February, the rebels initiated an offensive on Marib in an attempt to capture the energy-rich area. The onslaught has displaced thou-sands of locals amid accusations that Al Houthis are using civilians there as human shields.

The Arab alliance said on Friday it had conducted 31 operations in Ma-rib over the past 24 hours, targeting the rebels and their outposts there.

“The targeting operations resulted in destruction of 16 military vehi-cles and killing more than 92 terrorist elements,” the coalition add-ed.

Al Houthi have plunged Yemen into a devastating war after they unseat-ed the internationally recognised government and seized some parts of the impoverished country including the capital Sana’a in late 2014.

Months later, the Saudi-led military alliance intervened in Yemen in response to a request from the government there.