Yemen soldier killed in Houthi drone attack — officials

DUBAI — A Yemeni soldier was killed and two others wounded Saturday in a drone attack launched by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the war-torn country's south, a government official told AFP.

A military source in the besieged government-held city of Taez confirmed the casualties, the latest in renewed fighting in Yemen despite diplomatic efforts to halt the long-running conflict.

The drone attack targeted a military checkpoint "before the passage of a convoy carrying Defence Minister Mohsen Al Daari, accompanied by chief of staff General Saghir Bin Aziz, who were heading towards the city of Taez," the government official said, also requesting anonymity.

Taez, Yemen's third largest city, is controlled by the Saudi-backed government but surrounded by Houthi rebels, who have seized large swathes of the country in almost a decade of war.

Clashes on Monday in oil-producing Marib province, one of the main battlegrounds and the government's last stronghold in the north, killed 10 soldiers, military sources told AFP.

The flare-up comes amid growing international efforts to end the war that has ravaged the Arab world’s poorest country.

The Houthis seized control of Yemen’s capital Sanaa in late 2014, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention the following year.

Since the first air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition on March 26, 2015, the war has killed hundreds of thousands directly or indirectly, and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Earlier this month, Riyadh and Tehran agreed to restore diplomatic ties after a seven-year rupture, spurring some hope it would lead to calm in Yemen, where the regional heavyweights back opposing sides.

But analysts had warned that the surprise March 10 announcement was unlikely to bring an immediate end to the conflict.