Five dead as Houthi missile hits Yemen's Marib

Strike comes just days after group targeted Abu Dhabi

Missiles on display at an exhibition at an unidentified location in Yemen. Houthi Media Office / Reuters

Five people were killed on Wednesday and 23 others injured when Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis fired a ballistic missile at the strategic northern city of Marib, a medical source said.

The medic said two soldiers and three civilians were killed in the strike, which the Houthis claimed on Twitter.

Marib, in an oil-rich province of the same name, is the government's last northern stronghold. The Houthis have been fighting to seize it for months.

A pro-government military source confirmed the Houthi missile strike on the city.

The attack comes a day after pro-government fighters from the Giants Brigades forces said they expelled the Houthis from Harib, a district south of Marib.

The rebels have recently suffered a series of territorial defeats amid a major escalation in Yemen's seven-year war.

On Monday the Houthis launched missiles at the UAE which were intercepted over Abu Dhabi, a week after a drone attack killed three people in the first deadly attack on UAE soil claimed by the rebels.

The Houthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention the following year.

Hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions displaced in the conflict, which the UN has labelled the world's worst humanitarian crisis.