Shelling happens as militia suffers defeats in Marib, Taiz Coalition airstrikes killed nearly 200 Houthis on Marib, Al-Bayda, and Taiz AL-MUKALLA: Yemeni government officials and human rights activists have condemned a Houthi missile attack in the central city of Marib that killed five civilians and wounded 23 others, some of them children. Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Muammar Al-Eryani said a missile fired by the Iran- backed militia on Wednesday evening hit the airport neighborhood. He called on the world to punish the Houthis for their crimes against civilians. “Houthi terrorist militia’s deliberate targeting of residential areas and civilians in Marib is a full-fledged war crime,” he said on Twitter, adding that the “cowardly act of revenge” reflected the losses suffered by the Houthis at the hands of the “heroes of the army, resistance and Giants Brigades on various war fronts.” The official SABA news agency reported that many people were critically wounded in the attack and had been taken to two government-run hospitals in Marib. The American Center for Justice said in a statement on Thursday it “condemns in the strongest terms the Houthi group’s continued targeting of civilians and residential neighborhoods in the city of Marib using balistic missiles in a systematic manner.” The shelling is happening as the militia continues to suffer defeats in the provinces of Marib and Taiz. Meanwhile, army officer Abdul Basit Al-Baher said the Yemeni army, backed by air cover from the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy, on Thursday liberated a number of villages and other locations in Maqbanah district, west of the southern city of Taiz, after fighting with the Houthis. According to a coalition statement issued on Thursday, over the previous 24 hours more than 190 Houthis were killed and 29 of their vehicles destroyed in 44 airstrikes by warplanes in the provinces of Al-Bayda, Marib and Taiz.