Al Mukalla: Shells fired by Iran-backed Al Houthi fighters from outside Yemen’s southern city of Taiz killed three children on Wednesday and injured several others as fighting raged on many fronts across the country.
The state-run Saba news agency said the shells ripped through some homes near a military hospital on the eastern edges of the city, killing the three children and injuring six others.
Al Houthi fighters usually resort to heavy shelling of residential districts in Taiz when they fail to make gains in their offensive to take control of the city centre.
Taiz has been under an Al Houthi-imposed siege for almost two years with the aim of weakening army troops and resistance fighters holed up inside.
The Ministry of Defence said on Thursday as many as 12 bodies of Al Houthi fighters were found scattered in the farms of Al Zahari region, north of the Red Sea town of Mocha, apparently killed in clashes with government forces in recent days.
The militants staging attacks on government forces under the cover of farms, where they would hide arms and launch rockets from the dense vegetation, according to the ministry’s official news site 26sepnews.net.
Fighting has been raging along the west coast since January when hundreds of government forces launched a massive offensive to liberate the vast and porous coastline from the Al Houthi militia.
The government has repeatedly accused rebels of turning the vital western seaports into entry points for arms shipments from Iran.
Meanwhile in Nehim, just outside of the Yemeni capital Sana’a, the army slowed down its offensive in the district’s rugged mountains to allow explosive experts to defuse several landmines, Abdullah Al Shabdaqi, a spokesperson for Sana’a resistance fighters, told Gulf News on Thursday.
The army was also waiting for more military reinforcements to arrive from the neighbouring Marib province.
“The fighting subsided on Wednesday and Thursday as government forces have come into possession of heavy arms.” he said.
Dozens of fighters on both sides have been killed in the district as government forces push to towards the Al Houthi-held capital.
Also in Sana’a, local media outlets reported on Thursday that clashes erupted between Al Houthis and local tribesmen in Saref region on the eastern edges of Sana’a.
The rebels provoked tribesmen when they tried to take control of their lands.
In the southern province of Shabwa, the Ministry of Defence said two government soldiers were killed when Al Houthis attacked their positions.
