Yemeni government forces claim 1,860 Houthis ‘neutralised’
Yemeni government forces say in a social media post they carried out 2,103 ‘precise targeting operations’.
Yemeni government forces have said they “neutralised” 1,860 Houthi fighters since launching a large-scale counteroffensive to retake territory under the control of the Houthis, an armed group also known as Ansar Allah or Supporters of God.
The spokesperson for the internationally recognised government’s military said in a social media post early on Thursday it had carried out 2,103 “precise targeting operations” against Houthi military positions across several fronts as part of the ongoing “Dawn of Yemen” campaign.
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The Yemeni government, backed by Saudi Arabia, also says its forces have captured strategic mountain positions in western Taiz overlooking the coast.
Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, announced on Sunday the Dawn of Yemen operation to retake all Houthi-held territory, including the capital, Sanaa, which the Iran-backed group has controlled since 2014.
Battles in Yemen have focused in recent days on areas around the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a shipping route that has become more crucial for energy exports since the US-Israel war on Iran restricted trade through the Strait of Hormuz.
Forces aligned with the Yemeni government launched an operation on Tuesday to recapture strategic territory near the strait and around the city of Mocha, which the Houthis had taken last month.
Coalition targeting
The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said on Wednesday it destroyed 82 Houthi military targets in the Yemeni governorates of Saada, Hodeidah, al-Jawf and Marib.
The spokesperson for the coalition said in a statement that the targets included missile sites, including “11 mountain-based ballistic missile storages in Saada, command and control centres, communication systems, missile and weapons storages”.
The latest operation followed Houthi attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday targeting King Khalid international airport in Riyadh and Abha international airport, according to the spokesperson.
The Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said the attacks on the two airports killed three people.
One person was killed and eight were wounded in an attack on King Khalid airport, while two people were killed and 28 were wounded in the attack on facilities at Abha airport, the GACA said in a statement.
The attacks have drawn condemnation from across the region. Kuwait denounced the attacks as a “flagrant violation” of Saudi sovereignty and international law. Egypt said the attacks threaten the security of the entire region.
The Mecca-based nongovernmental organisation Muslim World League also condemned the strikes, describing them as “treacherous terrorist attacks”.
As the fighting rages on, Yemen’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Abdullah al-Saadi, met the UN secretary-general’s special envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, on Wednesday to discuss the situation in the country.
During their talks, al-Saadi accused the Houthis of rejecting peace initiatives and de-escalation efforts proposed by the Yemeni government.
He stressed that the government’s goal is to extend its control across the entirety of the country and end the Houthis’ ability to wage war. He said the government is seeking a permanent end to the war and is not interested in a temporary truce, arguing that such a scenario would only lead to fighting later.
