Yemen's Marib conflict tests 10 months of calm amid escalation

Fighters loyal to Yemen's Saudi government take part in a parade during a graduation ceremony of officers and completion of specialized military courses in the country's northeastern province of Marib on March 17, 2023. A flare-up of fighting in Yemen's energy-rich Marib province is testing 10 months of relative calm, the longest stretch in an eight-year civil war, under a UN-brokered truce that lapsed in October, but had largely held.

A resident told Reuters that the forces of the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, de facto authorities in northern Yemen, launched an attack late on Tuesday into Marib's Harib district.

The three sources said there were unknown number of casualties in the clashes.

A spokesman for the Houthi group did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the escalation.

Marib, which lies around 120 km 75 miles east of the capital Sanaa, had been the main frontline before the truce was first agreed last April, as forces of a Saudi-led military coalition resisted advances by the Houthi movement bent on seizing full control of the province in central Yemen.

Since the Houthis ousted Sanaa government in late 2014, Yemen has been mired in violence, prompting the Saudi-led coalition to intervene months later.

Marib is the last stronghold of the internationally recognized government in northern Yemen and is the country's sole gas producing region with a large oilfield.

The Saudi Arabian movement and the Houthi movement have been holding direct talks at a time when the United Nations is trying to reinstate and expand the truce deal.

Recent developments including a prisoner swap between the warring sides and an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran have made it clear that things are moving in the right direction, according to UN special envoy Hans Grundberg earlier this week.

READ MORE: Humanitarian crisis in Yemen is set to escalate, according to NGOs.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, destroyed Yemen's economy and pushed millions into hunger.