Aden: At least 30 Yemeni soldiers were killed in coalition air raids and clashes after troops attempted to defect to Iran-backed militia ranks near the border with Saudi Arabia, a military source said on Wednesday.
Saudi-led coalition jets, which have bombed Yemeni rebel positions since March, intervened when “dozens of soldiers defected and announced their support” for Al Houthi militiamen on Tuesday, prompting clashes with pro-government troops, the source said.
The incident took place at the 23rd Mechanised Brigade, stationed near the border with Saudi Arabia and left “at least 30 soldiers killed and dozens wounded” on both sides, he said.
“Armoured vehicles and troop carriers were destroyed or damaged” in the air raids and clashes between rival units before the situation was brought under control, the source added.
Troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh have joined forces with the Al Houthi militiamen, who seized the capital almost unresisted in September before advancing southwards in the impoverished Gulf country.
Saudi Arabia fears the Al Houthis are trying to bring Yemen under the influence of Iran.
In the country’s main southern city of Aden, heavy fighting raged between militiamen and pro-government forces, residents said.
Military sources said that the militia fired rockets at a residential district killing eight civilians, among them three children.
Meanwhile, the militia-controlled sabanews.net website reported that around 40 inmates escaped in a jailbreak after coalition jets bombed the area surrounding a prison in Mahawit province, northwest of the capital.
On Tuesday, a car bomb exploded outside a mosque in Sana’a, killing at least one person and wounding five, in a fresh attack on the Al Houthis claimed by Daesh.
Earlier in the day, the coalition bombarded cities and towns in Southern Yemen, as the targeted militia accused it of killing 124 people on Monday in one of the deadliest days of its air war.
Tuesday’s bloodshed came two days after UN envoy Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad arrived in Sana’a bidding to secure a humanitarian truce in a conflict estimated to have killed 3,000 people, mostly civilians.
The car bomb, at the Al Raoudh mosque in southeast Sana’a, went off as worshippers were leaving after evening prayers, witnesses and a security official said.
A medical source said at least one person was killed and five more wounded.
In a brief statement posted on militant websites, Daesh said it had “taken revenge” against Al Houthi militiamen who have seized swathes of the country.
The UN says more than 3,200 people have been killed and 1.26 million displaced in Yemen since fighting broke out in March.
