Yemeni forces advance in Al Houthi stronghold of Saada

Cairo: Yemeni government forces have made territorial gains in the province of Saada, the far northern stronghold of Al Houthi militants, military sources said on Tuesday.

Yemeni government forces backed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE have bombarded militia positions outside Hodeida after pausing their push into the strategic Red Sea port city, government sources said on Tuesday.

The forces seized several positions of Al Houthis after fierce clashes near the district of Baqim in northern Saada near the Saudi border, the sources added, according to the Dubai-based television Al Arabiya.

Jets from an Arab coalition, supporting the government troops, unleashed a series of air raids targeting missile and mortar launch pad in Saada.

The Iran-aligned extremists have used Saada as a launch pad for firing ballistic missiles across the border into Saudi Arabia.

In recent weeks, the Saudi-led Arab Coalition has stepped up attacks on Saada as part of a multi-front campaign against Al Houthis in Yemen.

The government forces, supported by the air coalition aircraft, have stormed the mountainous district of Abwab Al Hadid in Baqim and started a mop-up operation there, according to the alliance’s spokesman Turki Al Maliki.

The full recapture of Abwab Al Hadid will be a significant strategic gain in the Saada campaign.

“There will be no more hilltops facing the National [Yemeni] Army, and Baqim will come under the fire of the army and the coalition,” Al Maliki added at a press conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Monday.

The Saada campaign is timed with a major coalition-backed onslaught aimed at expelling Al Houthis from the Red Sea city of Hodeida in western Yemen.

Hodeida is strategically important because of its harbour, which is a lifeline for millions of Yemenis, as most of the commercial imports and relief supplies enter through it to the country.

The Arab Coalition accuses Al Houthis of taking advantage of their control of the harbour to obtain weapons from their Iranian patrons as well as confiscate aid intended for Yemenis in order to sustain their war efforts.

Al Houthis have been in control of Hodeida since October 2014, a month after they overran the capital Sana’a in a coup against the internationally recognised government.

In 2015, the Saudi-led coalition, to which the UAE is a main partner, initiated a campaign in Yemen against Al Houthis after the militants advanced on Yemen’s southern city of Aden, the temporary capital of the country after their takeover of Sana’a.

— with inputs from AFP