SANAA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of Yemeni soldiers killed in a ballistic missile attack by Houthi rebels in Yemen's northeastern province of Marib on Saturday has risen to at least 80, a government health ministry official said Sunday.

Other 150 soldiers sustained critical injuries from the attack and being receiving treatment, the official in Marib told Xinhua by phone on condition of anonymity.

The attack at Saturday's sunset hit the gathering of soldiers at a mosque in al-Estikbal military base. Most of the victims belong to the fourth presidential protection guard.

Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani blamed the Iran-allied Houthi rebels for the attack, but the Houthis have not claimed responsibility.

Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Sunday directed the army to be on high alert following the attack.

"The Houthis have no desire for peace," Hadi said in a statement carried by the state news agency SABA.

Hours after the Marib attack, the Saudi-led coalition, which backs the Yemeni government forces, launched a series of airstrikes on a Houthi-controlled military base in the southeast of the Houthi-held capital Sanaa, with no casualties reported, according to the residents.

The Arab coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi against the Houthis who stormed the capital Sanaa and controlled much of the country's north in late 2014.

The United Nations has been trying to end the war that has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed Yemen to the brink of famine. Enditem

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