Al Mukalla: The US ambassador to Yemen, Matthew Tueller, has hailed the Yemeni government’s acceptance of a recent proposal by UN envoy Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad about Hodeida and their full support to the envoy’s effort to push for a new round of peace talks. The state-run Saba news agency said on Tuesday that the US ambassador told Yemen president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi at a meeting in the Saudi capital that he commends the government’s statement on Hodeida.
The UN envoy’s proposal included Al Houthi exit from Hodeida city and allowing a neutral party to run its seaport in exchange for abandoning a military operation and reopening Sana’a airport.
Meanwhile, in the province of Abyan, chief security chief Colonel Abdullah Al Fadheli narrowly escaped death in a motorbike attack on his convoy in Dowfas region on Wednesday, residents and local media said.
He was passing through Dowfas when a motorbike laden with explosive materials and parking under trees exploded, killing two of his bodyguards and burning two armed vehicles, Aden Al Ghad news site reported quoting military sources.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but local security officials pointed figures of blame at Al Qaida militants.
Al Fadheli was the commander of the UAE trained forces that recaptured major cities in Abyan from Al Qaida last year.
The militant group usually stage attacks against government forces using the province’s rugged mountains.
Al Qaida has been exploiting the continuing war against the Iran-backed Al Houthi movement to expand but suffered a fatal defeat last year when thousands of government forces backed by massive air support from the Saudi-led coalition seized control of key cities in south Yemen, including Al Mukalla, the capital of Hadramout province and Yemen’s fifth largest city.
Meanwhile on the ground, fierce clashes erupted on Wednesday between government forces and Al Houthi fighters in the provinces of Jawf, Marib, Shabwa, Taiz and Hajja.
The Ministry of Defence said that that government forces heavily shelled rebel forces in Hajja’s Medi and Haradh districts, as other forces battled Al Houthis in Ouselan district in Shabwa province.
In the southern city of Taiz, a top army commander, Major General Khalid Fadhel, said that his forces pushed back many attacks by Al Houthis aimed at recapturing their previous positions in the presidential palace, Al Tashrefat military camp and others, adding that dozens of rebel forces were killed in the fighting.
In Sana’a’s Nehim district, the ministry’s official website, 26sepnews.net, reported that fighter jets from the Saudi-led coalition struck Al Houthi-controlled areas in Arhab district, targeting military reinforcements.
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