Dubai: Military sources predict the liberation of Taiz within days, saying that reinforcements arriving from Sana’a are helping the Saudi-led coalition forces deliver swift military victories.
“Reinforcements are helping [us] press on towards victory,” a military source told 24.ae. “The dead in the ranks of Al Houthis are in the dozens. We will lift the siege on Taiz within hours.”
The anonymous source called on the people of Taiz to take up arms and fight against the Al Houthis. However, he also urged people not to freely wander in areas controlled by Al Houthis, saying many landmines had been planted there.
The Yemeni National Army and the coalition forces have already managed to reclaim key areas in Taiz, after inflicting major losses on Al Houthi militants and forces loyal to the deposed Yemeni president Ali Saleh.
Backed by aerial support from coalition forces, ground troops from the National Army are pressing on at the front between Taiz and Lahej, a military source told Sky News Arabia.
After violent clashes for three days, troops of the legitimate government managed to capture a hill, which holds strategic-value as it overlooks Al Houthi campsites. According to Sky News Arabia, the victory was achieved after coalition forces sent military supplies including “high quality weaponry”.
On Tuesday, government forces and the resistance launched an attack on militia forces positioned west of Taiz. The attack managed to penetrate Kabab station, Tepe Al Khazan, and Al Muqababa. Fighting continued until Wednesday when government forces achieved some progress.
A Sky News Arabia correspondent in Yemen said that clashes in the Dhabab area, west of Taiz, killed eight Al Houthi militants and forces loyal to Saleh, while wounding dozens of others within their ranks.
The spokesperson of the Yemeni armed forces, Brigadier General Samir Hajj, said the supplies that arrived inTaiz changed the rules of engagement and had a positive impact on the performance of the resistance against Al Houthis.
For his part, Colonel Abdul Aziz Al Majidi, Head of Operations in the popular resistance, told Sky News Arabia that modern and sophisticated weapons helped resistance forces in their fight against Al Houthis.
For the second day in a row, militants blocked off the only eastern entrance to Taiz, forcing Yemeni citizens to traverse dozens of kilometres to enter the city through its western gate.
Meanwhile, violent clashes involving heavy artillery erupted between militias and the resistance in the Bayda’a province. According to Sky News Arabia’s sources, an Al Houthi field commander was killed in the attack on the Dalei front. Wounded and dead Al Houthi fighters were taken to hospitals in Rada’a.
Coalition forces launched a number of air strikes on Al Houthi sites in the North and West of Marib. Sources told Sky News Arabia that air strikes were specifically targeting militant positions in the Marib regions of Habab and Serwa
According to Sky News Arabia, the Saudi-led coalition is aiming to break the siege on Taiz, liberate it and then continue military operations from within to defeat the militias occupying other governorates of Yemen. To this end, coalition aircraft launched extensive raids on camps overlooking the presidential palace south of the capital Sana’a, which is under the control of Al Houthis.
The coalition forces have been successful in liberating all the southern provinces and are moving on to the centre and the west of Yemen, “tightening the noose on the rebels in the north as a prelude to restoring stability to the country”, according to Sky News Arabia.
