Houthis besiege, attack small village in Yemen’s Al-Bayda

SMA NEWS – SANA’A
The Iran-backed Houthis have laid siege to a small village in the Yemeni central province of Al-Bayda and begun indiscriminately bombarding houses, Yemen’s government and rights activists said on Wednesday.

Residents and local media reports said that the Houthis besieged Khubzah village in Al-Bayda’s Ghaifa after the Yemeni militia accused villagers of assassinating allied operatives.

The villagers denied the Houthi accusations, and tribal mediations failed to convince the Houthis to stop their siege and shelling of the village.

Yemen’s government said that the Houthis are besieging the village, preventing people — including the wounded or children and women — from leaving, warning of a humanitarian crisis in the village if the Houthis did not end the siege and the attacks.

“The Govt. condemns in the strongest terms the #Houthi militia’s attack on the Khubzah village in #AlBayda Governorate & imposing a siege on its residents, preventing the delivery of food & medical supplies,” the Yemeni government said on Twitter.

It slammed the Houthis for seeking to undermine the UN-brokered truce that has largely reduced violence across the country. “Such continuous attacks undermine the truce and efforts made to extend it.”

Local activists circulated a letter from tribesmen pledging to hand over fellow men to the Houthis if they substantiated their allegations.