Yemen official warns dam will break if rebels take Marib

By JON GAMBRELL
Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The foreign minister of Yemen’s government in exile has warned that a rebel takeover of the crucial, energy-rich city of Marib would be a disaster on the scale of the collapse of its ancient dam that decimated an entire kingdom. Ahmad Awad Bin Mubarak’s comments Sunday at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain mark some of the most-dire made regarding the offensive by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who have held Yemen’s capital since September 2014. Though the intervention of Saudi-led coalition halted their march south in 2015, the war has slogged on for years and created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.