Yemeni military funerals for fallen fighters

Newly recruited Houthi soldiers hold flags depicting a Houthi commander killed in recent fighting against government forces during his funeral in Sanaa, Yemen on December 6, 2021. REUTERS Khaled Abdullah

SANAA, December 6, Reuters - Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis held military funerals on Monday for 25 fighters killed in battles with a Saudi-led coalition, as fighting shows no signs of abating despite intense international diplomacy to end the seven-year-old conflict.

The funerals took place as fighting raged in the gas-rich Marib region, while warplanes from the coalition intensified their bombing of Sanaa, Marib and other areas.

The Houthis have also stepped up cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia using armed drones and missiles. An honour guard carried the coffins draped with flags, flowers and photographs of the dead - with military music through the capital Sanaa. Relatives gathered to mourn their loved ones.

We are inspired by these martyrs' pride and dignity in these days and say to them: ''congratulations! "You have preceded us to a paradise as wide as the heavens and earth," said Ali Muhyaddin, a relative of one of the dead.

The war in Yemen has killed thousands of people and caused the world's largest humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.

The conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran is seen as a proxy war between the U.N. and Iran as a result of the UN's efforts to agree a ceasefire. The Houthis say they are fighting a corrupt system and a foreign invasion.

On Sunday, Houthi media showed fighters exchanging heavy artillery fire with coalition forces in Marib as warplanes flew overhead. All 25 fighters buried in Sanaa were killed in Marib, Houthi officials said.

The Houthis launched a year-long offensive to take Marib, which hosts Yemen's biggest gas fields. The city is the last stronghold of the internationally recognised government.

Marib is home to 3 million people, including nearly 1 million who fled to other parts of Yemen after the Houthis ousted Sanaa from the capital in late 2014, prompting the Saudi-led coalition to intervene.

More than 45,000 people fleeing their homes as the Houthi forces push the offensive, the number of displaced people in camps in the province has risen nearly 10 fold since September, according to the UN migration agency IOM last month.