18 July 2018•Update: 18 July 2018
By Zeynep Tufekci
MAARIB, Yemen
At least seven Houthi rebels were killed and some injured Tuesday in a clash between Houthi rebels and relatives of a tribal leader in Yemen.
Houthi rebels attacked tribal leader Sadiq al-Qadi's house in southwestern Ibb province for an unspecified reason, according to the Yemeni army’s September Net website.
Following the clash, the rebels launched a bomb attack on the house after Qadi's wife, children and escorts abandoned it.
Impoverished Yemen has remained wracked by violence since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.
The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at shoring up the country’s pro-Saudi government.
The following year, UN-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait failed to end the destructive conflict.
The violence has devastated Yemen’s infrastructure, including water and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.
