Yemen Military Says 134 Houthis Killed Near Maarib

Yemen’s pro-Saudi military reported dozens of new strikes against the Houthis near the city of Maarib, killing at least 134. These are in addition to 150 others killed the day before.

The story is increasingly common, with the military bragging about a huge Houthi death toll, and few to no deaths on their side. Once again, the Houthis came out of the fighting with control of another distract, now just 25 km from Maarib itself.

The trend is of ever escalating fighting, with the paradoxical aside of the Houthis suffering overwhelmingly more casualties, but gaining territory, slowly but surely, and they are now on the very of taking the city they’ve sought since February.

Protracted fighting has made Maarib symbolically valuable. Officials have also emphasized the oil production in the area, though this is fairly minimal, and only large by comparison to Yemen’s poverty.

Victory may give either side momentum in peace talks, though a lot of refugees have fled around the area, and whoever wins is going to have to cope with large refugee populations and limited supplies.