At least 111 soldiers in Yemen were killed by an Iran-backed rebel group while gathered for evening prayers.
In one of the deadliest attacks in five years, ballistic missile and drone strikes exploded at the mosque of a military base where scores of soldiers were worshiping on Saturday. The government blamed the Houthi movement, a rebel group bolstered by Iran that is opposed to the Saudi Arabia-supported Yemeni government.
Fighting between the two factions has killed about 100,000 people and sparked an ongoing humanitarian crisis that includes 240,000 people living in faminelike conditions.
Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi called the Saturday attack a “cowardly and terrorist” act and said it proved “without doubt that the Houthis have no desire for peace.”
Martin Griffiths, U.N. special envoy for Yemen, said the attack was an escalation and urged the conflict to be resolved through diplomacy rather than warfare.
“I have said before that the hard-earned progress that Yemen has made on de-escalation is very fragile. Such actions can derail this progress,” Griffiths said. “I urge all parties to stop the escalation now and to direct their energy away from the military front and into the politics.”
The strike comes as countries across the Middle East fear increased attacks from Iranian-backed militia groups angry at the United States for killing Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Soleimani, 62, died in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad International Airport along with Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, head of the Iranian-supported Popular Mobilization Forces.
Soleimani, the leader of the elite special operations unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American troops. He had a major influence among Iranian-backed groups, often traveling around the Middle East to coordinate and meet with leaders of the militias.
Iran reacted to Soleimani’s death by launching more than a dozen missiles at two bases in Iraq housing U.S. troops.
