Costly and critical: the battle for a key Yemeni city
ABC News
On the most active front line in Yemen's long civil war, the months-long battle for the city of Marib has become a dragged-out grind with a steady stream of dead and wounded from both sides
MARIB CITY, Yemen -- The two fighters stand shoulder-to-shoulder on a mountain overlook, with a clear view below of the enemy’s position. They are part of the last lines of defense between the government’s last stronghold in Yemen’s north, and the Houthi rebels trying to take it. Hassan Saleh and his younger brother Saeed, both in their early 20s, have been fighting alongside other government fighters and tribesman outside the oil-rich city of Marib, against the months-long offensive by the Iranian-backed rebels. They say they need more weapons to push the attackers back. “We need sniper rifles,” said Hassan, who was taking a position in a sandbagged trench in the mountainous Kassara region. All that most battalions have are old Kalashnikovs and machine guns mounted on the rear of pickup trucks. This is the most active frontline in Yemen’s nearly 7-year-old civil war, where a steady stream of fighters on both sides are killed or wounded every day, even as international pressure to end the war intensifies. Amid another round of peace talks, this time led by Oman, the desert city of Marib remains the crucible of one of the world’s most bogged-down conflicts.More Related News