Cairo: Yemen’s Iran-allied Al Houthi militia suffered casualties this week in its foiled attacks and infiltration bids in the western port city of Hodeida, the Yemeni army has said.
At least 13 Al Houthi fighters were killed in clashes, and 67 injured. They have been taken to hospitals in areas controlled by the rebels in Hodeida and the capital Sana’a over the past three days, the army, according to Yemeni news portal Aden Al Ghad on Saturday .
Al Houthis have recently mounted a series of attacks in the southern parts of Hodeida that were repulsed by the Yemeni forces supported by a Saudi-led Arab alliance.
On Friday, Al Houthis shelled residential areas in the district of Tahita in southern Hodeida, in violation of a UN-brokered ceasefire deal sealed a year ago, the paper reported.
Hodeida is strategically important because of its key port through which most Yemen’s imports and aid enter.
In December 2018, the government and Al Houthis signed an agreement on a ceasefire in Hodeida at peace talks near the Swedish capital Stockholm. The deal, initially seen as a breakthrough, has since bogged down over the militia’s recalcitrance.
Yemen’s conflict erupted after Al Houthis unseated the internationally recognised government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi and overran parts of the country, including Sana’a in late 2014.
In 2015, an Arab alliance co-led by the UAE and Saudi Arabia, intervened in Yemen in response to a request from the Hadi government after Al Houthis advanced on the southern city of Aden, the country’s provisional capital.
