Al Mukalla: Yemen President Abd Rabbo Mansour on Saturday rejected a new UN peace proposal that suggests he takes a figurehead role after passing his powers to a new vice-president as Al Houthis quit cities under their control and hand over arms to the state, aides to Hadi said.
At a meeting with UN envoy, Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad, Hadi rejected the proposal since it breaches the UN Security Resolution, National Dialogue Conference and GCC initiative that call upon the rebel movement to leave cities before discussing transfer of power. Last week, the UN envoy presented his proposal to Al Houthis and the ousted president’s supporters in the capital.
Meanwhile, at least two dozens of Al Houthis fighters were killed on Saturday in fierce clashes with the government forces in Nehim district outside the rebel-controlled Sana’a.
Abdullah Al Shandaqi, a spokesperson for Sana’a Resistance, said on Saturday that as many as 24 Al Houthis and renegade army troops loyal to the ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh were killed in heavy battles in Nehim as the government forces are pushing forward to recapture Sana’a from the rebels forces.
Al Shandaqi said the government forces took control of a mountain under a heavy aerial bombardment by the Saudi-led coalition that killed most of Al Houthis there in the last couple of days. Since late last year, government forces backed military advisers from the coalition have engaged in heavy battles with the rebel forces and edging towards Sana’a.
To slow down the government forces’ advances, Al Houthis laid a huge number of landmines on Nehim’s rugged terrains, according army commanders. The government forces also battled Al Houthis in Al Masloub district in the northern province of Jawf.
Local government loyalists said on Saturday that warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition hit a convoy of armed vehicles sent to reinforce Al Houthis in the province’s Al Metoun, destroying two of them and killing several fighters. A similar number of armed vehicles were targeted by the warplanes as the rebel forces sent them from the capital to Marib’s Serwah.
Al Houthis on Saturday fired a new ballistic missile at Marib province where thousands of government and coalition forces are based. Local officials said that the coalition’s air defence shot it down before reaching the city of Marib.
Saudi-led coalition warplanes have launched intensive air strikes in the last two days on Al Houthi military sites in Yemeni cities on the Red Sea like Al Hodeida, Mocka, Thubab and Medi. Local officials think that the heavy air strikes are apparently aimed at paving the way for a fresh assault on these cities from the sea.
