Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit on Wednesday warned against the Houthi's military escalation in Yemen's northeastern province of Marib. In a statement, Aboul-Gheit blamed the Houthi group for "displacing thousands and jeopardizing the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians living in refugees' camps." "The Houthi rebels have benefited from the political changes at the international arena, and seek to achieve more political gains through a military escalation by targeting inhabited areas," he said. Aboul-Gheit stressed that such escalation makes resuming the political process a difficult far-fetching step. Any political settlement requires an immediate halt of the military operation, he said in the statement, calling on the Houthi group to completely abide by the cease-fire on all fronts. Escalation of fighting between the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels has displaced nearly 400 families in the oil-rich province of Marib, according to local Yemeni officials. Yemen has been mired in civil war since late 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized control of several northern provinces and forced the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa. The Saudi-led coalition intervened in the Yemen conflict in March 2015 to support Hadi's government.