Dubai: The Saudi-led Arab coalition carried out what a military source described as the heaviest air strikes in weeks on the Al Houthi-held capital Sana’a on Sunday.
Al Houthi militants overran Sana’a in September last year before capturing much of the rest of the country and forcing the government into exile.
President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi returned from neighbouring Saudi Arabia on November 18, two days after the offensive to relieve the siege of Taiz began.
In Taiz, where residents have been living under a brutal Al Houthi-imposed siege for months, Hadi urged residents to continue their resistance until Yemen’s ‘expected victory’.
Taiz residents held a rally on Friday voicing support to the Arab coalition who are fighting to break the Al Houthi-imposed siege on the city.
They held banners that expressed support for the coalition and picture of Saudi King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz.
Meanwhile, over 20 Al Houthi militants were killed in fighting with Yemeni resistance forces in the Al Sharyha area between the provinces of Taiz and Lahej, Sky News Arabia reported.
They coalition air force also targeted Al Houthi positions in Taiz cutting off the areas of Al Qaroodh and Al Masrekh from one another, according to the 24.ae news site.
The house of Al Houthi military leader Abdul Rahim Abdu Ahmad was bombed in the Al Hayjah area.
Taiz residents reported heavy smoke and loud artillery shelling in the targeted areas mainly in the east of Taiz where Al Houthi militants are concentrated.
Ground fighting and air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition also killed 12 Al Houthi militants in Dhaleh province, military sources said.
Dhaleh is one of five southern provinces which the coalition-backed loyalists retook from Al Houthis in a July offensive.
Al Houthi militants and their allies managed to recapture the province’s second-largest city, Damt, earlier this month.
Meanwhile, a shell fired over the border from Yemen into Saudi Arabia has killed a Yemeni expatriate, Saudi state media reported.
The artillery fire hit the border province of Najran on Saturday evening, the official SPA news agency said.
More than 70 people have been killed in border shelling and skirmishes since hositlities intensified in March.
Most of the casualties have been soldiers.
