Yemen

Saudi Arabia said early Tuesday it had launched overnight air raids against targets in Yemen in retaliation for a ballistic missile fired by Houthi rebels, destroying the launch site in Sanaa. … Iran-backed Houthi rebels control much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, which they seized in 2014.

Dozens of rights and humanitarian groups on Thursday called on the United Nations to create a new independent panel to collect evidence of possible war crimes committed by all parties in Yemen's bitter conflict, after Saudi Arabia reportedly lobbied to shut down the previous investigation.

War-torn Yemen’s government said Sunday it is confident of holding the strategic city of Marib despite sustained attacks from Iran-backed Houthi rebels which killed thousands on both sides in recent months.

Nearly 15,000 Yemeni Houthi fighters have been killed near the strategic city of Marib since June, sources close to the rebels said Thursday, in a rare admission of their casualties during the seven-year war. … Marib city is the internationally-recognized government’s last major stronghold in Yemen’s oil-rich north.

The United Nations monitoring mission has urged Yemen’s warring parties to hold new talks over the Hodeidah as the Saudi-led coalition attacked areas south of the port city, where Houthi fighters advanced in the wake of withdrawing coalition forces. The call came on Monday, a day after the air raids began.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said Sunday its air strikes had killed more than 260 Houthi rebels in the past three days, but a rebel spokesman said the bombing campaign will not stop them. … The UN Security Council called on Wednesday for “de-escalation” in Yemen, in a unanimously adopted statement to counter the risk of “large-scale famine” in the country. The 15 council members demanded an immediate nationwide ceasefire, and sought an end to the Marib escalation.

Humanitarian assistance has been ramped up on Yemen's west coast where ongoing violence has increased the needs of communities displaced by years of conflict, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday.

[…] Marib has Yemen's biggest gas fields, while Shabwa has several oil fields and the country's sole liquefied natural gas terminal.

Bahrain, Russia and other members of the U.N. Human Rights Council pushed through a vote on Thursday to shut down the body's war crimes investigations in Yemen, in a stinging defeat for Western states who sought to keep the mission going.

[…] Marib, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of the rebel-held capital Sanaa, sits at a crossroads between the southern and northern regions and is key to controlling Yemen’s north.