Al Mukalla: A senior commander loyal to Yemen’s Al Houthi movement and its ally ousted president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, was killed in clashes with government forces near the Red Sea city of Mokha, days after Yemen’s army announced killing several Al Houthi military figures, local media said on Saturday.
Al Masdar Online, an independent news site, reported that Brigadier General Abdul Wahed Al Wazer, the commander of Republican Guards’ Brigade 102, and several of his associates were killed in the continuing clashes with government forces on Mokha battlefield along the western coast of the country.
On Saturday, media figures loyal to the ousted president belatedly mourned the death of Brigadier General Hussain Al Saqqaf, the commander of Republican Guards’ Brigade 312, who was killed by government forces in Marib’s Al Makhdara region.
The elite Republican Guards remained loyal to Saleh even after he was removed from office in late 2011 following massive protests inspired by the Arab Spring. Military experts in Yemen strongly believe that Saleh’s forces were the main agent behind Al Houthi rapid military expansion and their occupation of the capital in September 2014.
On Friday, the Minister of Defence said that two Al Houthi field military leaders were killed in heavy clashes in the northern province of Jawf. Despite losing dozens of their commanders in the continuing war, Al Houthis still hold a large swathe of territories in northern Yemen.
In the central province of Marib, four soldiers were killed and five others injured when a Katyusha rocket fired by Al Houthi fighters landed near their military post on the edges of the city.
A local medic told Gulf News that the attack occurred on Friday night near the headquarter of the 3rd Military Region in Marib and another rocket landed in a desert area outside the city. Military sources said that the rockets were launched from Helan mountain.
Yemen army has recently launched a new push to dislodge Al Houthi fighters from Helan mountain and other locations in their last urban bastion in the province of Marib. Despite losing strategic locations on the mountain, Al Houthis still sneak into the mountain to stage rocket attacks on Marib city, the base of thousands of government and coalition forces.
Meanwhile, in the southern city of Taiz, local activists who document Al Houthi crimes against civilians, said on Saturday that Al Houthi snipers gunned down two women and injured several others in the southern and northern parts of the city. Hundreds of civilians were killed by Al Houthi snipers or in heavy shelling from the outskirts.
