Al Mukalla: Yemeni forces in Marib secured the province’s capital by clearing out a series of strategic hills where Iran-backed Al Houthi militants launch Katyusha rockets and mortar shells into the city, an army officer with the Third Military Region told Gulf News on Saturday.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief reporters, the officer said that Al Houthi shelling had killed army soldiers as well as civilians.
The relatively safe province hosts thousands of troops from the Saudi-led Arab coalition and is used to launch military operations against Al Houthi militants in the Jawf province.
The officer said that the hills spread over a large area could take some time to be fully liberated.
Elsewhere, government forces and resistance fighters tightened their grip on the strategic port of Maydi and the neighbouring areas along the Red Sea, days after it wrested control from Al Houthis.
A Yemeni who works at the Maydi seaport told Gulf News on Saturday that the resistance had deployed more troops to maintain security there but it was still difficult to reach Maydi city due to the many landmines placed retreating Al Houthi militants.
The seaport was an important supply line of arms to Al Houthi militants during their early days of their military expansion outside of their stronghold in the northern province of Saada in 2013.
“This is a very important area for Al Houthis. They used the seaport as a line for receiving arms during their expansion as it is the closest seaport to Saada,” the employee who also wished to be anonymous told Gulf News.
The Yemeni government has repeatedly accused Al Houthi militants of using the Red Sea port to receive arms shipments from Iran into the country.
Al Houthis now only have two seaports under their control, one in the Hodeida province and the Mokha seaport in the Taiz province.
Al Houthi militants and fighters loyal to ousted Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh have suffered a string of military losses across the country.
Yemeni forces are now a mere 35 kilometres away from the capital Sana’a, while other resistance fighters are fighting Al Houthis in Jawf.
Al Houthis and Saleh loyalists overthrew the legitimate Yemeni government in September 2014 and then expanded across the country.
In March, a Saudi-led Arab coalition decided to step in after Al Houthis took control of the southern port city of Aden.
Since then, the coalition has successfully rolled back the militant advances.
Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies accuse Iran of interfering in Yemen and in other countries in the region.
