Marib governor rallies troops for decisive battle in north Yemen

AL-MUKALLA: The governor of the battleground Marib province in Yemen rallied troops on Wednesday to defend it against a Houthi advance amid potentially decisive fighting for the provincial capital.
Gov. Sultan Al-Arada vowed that the people of Marib, the Yemeni army and the Saudi-led Arab coalition would defeat the Iran-backed militia.
“We will not allow those who raise pictures of Qassem Soleimani to rule us,” the governor said. Soleimani was the commander of Iran’s Quds Force who was killed in an American airstrike in January last year.