Second Yemen wedding bombed as UN says Houthi rebels accept ceasefire

Two airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition killed at least 15 civilians and wounded 25 others in Yemen on Wednesday, witnesses and independent security officials said, as the UN announced Houthi rebels had accepted a resolution to stop fighting.

With pressure increasing on the Houthis, the UN announced on Wednesday that the rebels had accepted a security council resolution calling for an end to the fighting. The UN special envoy was on his way to the region to see how Yemen’s government would respond.

The deaths took place at a wedding hosted by a tribal leader known to support the Houthi rebels, witnesses and independent security officials said.

News of the latest airstrikes emerged as officials said Yemeni government forces and their allies, including coalition troops, captured the last outpost of the Shia Houthis in the key Marib province. The forces took the town of Sirwah, said Col Ayed al-Moradi, a Yemeni military official.

The strikes targeted the home of the tribal leader in Sanban, a region in Dhamar province 113km (70 miles) south-east of the capital, Sana’a.

There was no immediate coalition comment. Last week it denied bombing another wedding party and killing more than 130 in the deadliest single event of Yemen’s civil war.

The Houthis have long resisted calls to withdraw from areas they have seized, which is a key part of the resolution the council approved in April shortly after the conflict began.

Previous attempts at peace talks have failed. The UN special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, will seek the support of all main parties to try again, a UN spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said.

The fighting has killed more than 4,000 people, leaving the Arab world’s poorest country in the grip of a humanitarian crisis and on the brink of famine.

The forces’ advance on the Houthis’ last outpost in Marib had been stalling for weeks.

Houthis said they repelled attacks amid coalition air strikes but Yemen’s pro-government satellite TV showed footage of bodies and destroyed tanks and armoured vehicles from inside Sirwah.

Emirati Brig Gen Ali Saif al-Kaabi, part of the coalition, told the satellite TV channel that Marib province was under anti-Houthi forces’ control.

Medical officials said 70 Houthis and more than 50 pro-government fighters were killed in three days of fighting over the town. Witnesses said few Houthi pockets remained in Sirwah.

The coalition’s goal is to retake Sana’a, which the rebels captured a year ago, but that remains a challenge.

Obstacles along the road west of Marib include more than 10,000 landmines planted by the Houthis, said a Yemeni military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.

In another development on Wednesday the Houthi-run SABA news agency said rebel fighters targeted and hit a warship from the Saudi-led coalition that was stationed in Bab al-Mandab Strait, the strategic southern entrance to the Red Sea and the gateway to the Suez canal.

The report could not be independently confirmed late on Wednesday.