Houthi militias using ‘death stones’ as latest trick in Yemen’s urban warfare

Sanaa - Houthi militias are using new methods in creating mines that are able to kill the greatest number of civilians in one attack, and some Yemenis are calling these “death stones”.

These death stones have been placed in several districts where Houthi militias have struggled or lost control in the ongoing civil war that has gripped the country for nearly three years.

Sources from inside Yemen’s army have confirmed that these “death stones” have been found mainly in the cities and villages in Yemen’s western coast which were recently liberated from the control of the coup militias. The “death stone” mines were randomly planted in roads and made to look like ordinary rocks.

RELATED: Houthi mines kill hundreds violating international law

Sources said that these mines were difficult to detect because they look like the ordinary stones, and were planted randomly in the sand dunes, and on the roads.

Houthi militias using ‘death stones’ as latest trick in Yemen’s urban warfare

Yemeni government forces warned citizens residing in the west coast of the country from approaching the strange stones on the roads.

The forces confirmed that the mines and implanted with explosive devices, a number of which were found near the al-Khazan Mountain in Bab al-Mandab, and in some areas of the recently liberated Mokha coastal areas.

According to the Yemeni military sources, these type of mines exploded have targeted military cars, crews and members of al-Mokha and West Coast areas, where the Houthi militia and the ousted Saleh were defeated before discovering these mines.

Houthi militias have created various forms of mines and explosives, including primitive ones, which they randomly plant on roads, homes and public facilities before they had to withdraw from areas under their control as a result of the military operations of the national army and the Arab coalition.

Yemen's Minister of Human Rights, Mohammed Askar, recently stated that there were more than 850 mine victims and about half a million mines were placed by the coup militias in the neighborhoods and roads across several cities.