UN slaps sanctions on 3 more Houthis

UNITED NATIONS/SANAA, Yemen－The UN Security Council has slapped sanctions on three Houthi rebels allegedly linked to cross-border attacks from Yemen into Saudi Arabia and to fighting in the government's last stronghold in the country's north.

The United Kingdom said on Wednesday it had proposed the sanctions because the attacks into Saudi Arabia have killed and wounded civilians and the Houthi offensive in the central desert city of Marib has sought to cut off access to humanitarian aid and includes the use of child soldiers.

The three rebels added to the UN sanctions blacklist are Muhammad Abd al-Karim al-Ghamari, the Houthi chief of general staff, assistant defense minister Saleh Mesfer Saleh al Shaer and Yusuf al-Madani, a prominent leader of Houthi forces.

The UN sanctions order all countries to immediately freeze the assets of the three Houthis and impose a travel ban on them.

The action brings the number of Yemenis under UN sanctions to nine, including Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, leader of the Houthi movement, and Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

"Three ballistic missiles hit the first Regiment in Dhahran Aljanob city in Saudi southern region of Asir, killing dozens of Saudi soldiers, including the regiment commander," Houthi military spokesman Yehya Sarea said in a statement aired by the militia's al-Masirah TV.

Also on Wednesday it was reported that the Houthis retrieved the bodies of 178 of their fighters from a frontline position in Marib, according to medics.

"They were killed in the past 24 hours when fighting with the Yemeni government troops backed by the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes on the frontline of al-Jubah district," said one of the medics in the province of Dhamar, neighboring Marib Province. The Houthi group usually doesn't disclose its casualties.

Missile attacks

Also, Sarea claimed the Houthis were responsible for four other ballistic missile attacks on three Yemeni government military bases inside Yemen. Two ballistic missiles hit a military base in the southwestern province of Taiz and the two other missiles hit bases in Marib Province.

Cross-border missile and drone attacks by the Houthi militia on Saudi cities have escalated since February when the group began a major offensive against the Saudi-backed Yemeni government army to capture the oil-rich Marib Province.

The Houthi rebels seized the northern Yemeni provinces, including the capital Sanaa, in late 2014, forcing President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government into exile in Saudi Arabia.

Yemen has since been mired in a civil war, and the Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in the conflict in March 2015 to support Hadi's government.

The Houthis also launched a ballistic missile attack against Yemen's strategic city of Mocha on Wednesday amid a visit by the UN envoy to the war-ravaged Arab country, a government official told Xinhua News Agency.

Three explosions occurred as the UN special envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg made his first visit to Mocha, on Yemen's western coast, the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that no casualties were recorded.

Xinhua - Agencies