Al Mukalla: Yemeni forces back by the Saudi-led coalition continued for the second day to break an Al Houthi-imposed siege on Dhamar’s Utmah region, on Friday.
Government forces have recently launched a series of deadly attacks on Al Houthi forces in the district, killing dozens of their fighters and capturing several others.
The rebels responded by imposing a siege on the district, banning people from entering or leaving their areas.
On Wednesday, the governor of Dhamar, Ali Al Quwsi said the besieged district was in a miserable humanitarian state.
He also urged the US to help provide humanitarian relief to the people in Utmah, during a meeting with US ambassador to Yemen Mathew Tueller.
Yemenis rallied around the government of Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi and revolted against an Al Houthi coup in 2015.
Saudi Arabia, leading an Arab coalition, stepped in to help liberate the Yemeni people from Al Houthi occupation.
In Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city, several government loyalists and Al Houthi fighters were killed in the last couple of days in clashes in many districts.
The clashes occurred in the western and eastern suburbs of the city and rebel forces shelled residential areas in the city centre after failing to make gains on the ground, local activists and journalists told Gulf News.
Meanwhile on Yemen’s western coast, government forces engaged in heavy battles with Al Houthi fighters and army soldiers loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh who launched a prompt attack on Al Nar mountain near the town of Mokha on the Red Sea.
The Yemeni army, with the help of UAE commanders, launched in January a major military operation, aimed at pushing Al Houthis out of the entire western coast in order to secure the strategic Bab Al Mandab Strait.
In 2013, more than 3.4 million barrels of oil per day passed through the 20 km wide Bab Al Mandab strait, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
