Cairo: At least 80 Al Houthi militiamen were killed and 100 others captured in clashes with the Yemeni government forces near the capital Sana’a ruled by the Iran-allied rebel group, military sources said Monday.
Fierce fighting erupted between the Yemeni army, supported by an Arab alliance, and Al Houthis on the Nehim front north east of Sana’a, the sources added, according to Saudi television Al Arabiya.
The alliance jets, meanwhile, struck the militia positions in the area, they added.
Earlier this week, the Yemeni army, supported by the Saudi-led coalition, initiated a major offensive against Al Houthis in Nehim, the nearest front to Sana’a.
Death toll rises in Marib attack
The latest fighting comes amid a reported rise in deaths from an attack blamed on Al Houthis in Yemen’s eastern province of Mareb.
The missile and drone attack on Saturday targeted a military training camp and a mosque inside it, leaving dozens dead and injured.
The death toll has jumped to 111 soldiers as 68 others are still being treated in different hospitals, the Health Ministry’s Undersecretary Abdul Raqib Al Haidari said.
“The death number has risen after a number of soldiers died of their serious injured,” he told Yemeni news outlet Al Masdar Online.
The Yemeni military blamed the attack on Al Houthis and vowed revenges on different battlegrounds.
The assault came amid renewed UN efforts to relaunch Yemen’s long-stalled peace process.
Yemen’s conflict erupted after Al Houthis toppled the internationally recognised government and overran parts of the country, including Sana’a, in late 2014.
In March, 2015, the Arab alliance co-led by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, intervened in Yemen in response to a request from its government after Al Houthis advanced on the southern city of Aden, the country’s provisional capital.
